RING DOVE. 3 



^hooses a site for its nest in gardens in close proximity to 

 Tiabitations, and sometimes even in the matted ivy covering 

 their walls. The first clutch of eggs is generally laid early 

 in April, and the second early in June ; even a third laying 

 is not unfrequent, for birds just hatched have been found 

 at least as late as October 18th, so that even a fourth brood 

 is possible, although the young probably succumb to the 

 approach of winter.* The eggs, whose complement, as 

 with all true Pigeons, is invariably two in number, are oval 

 in form and of a pure glossy white, measuring 1'6 by 1*2 ; 

 they are deposited at an interval of two or three days, and 

 incubation lasts from sixteen to eighteen. The male takes 

 a share in this task, and, as a rule, sits on the eggs during 

 the greater portion of the day. The young, when hatched, 

 are helpless and blind, continuing so until about the ninth 

 day, and they remain in. the nest until they are quite able to 

 fly. They are nourished by food supplied from the crops 

 of the parent birds, who, opening their bills so that the 

 mandibles of the young enter the pharynx, regurgitate the 

 pulpy and half-digested, curd-like contents of the crop, 

 shewing that " pigeon's milk " is not the absolute and 

 unfounded fable it was once supposed to be. Mr. R. Gray 

 (op. cit.) states that he has several times reared young birds 

 from eggs placed under a common Pigeon, and in these 

 cases they maintained a quiet habit, mixing freely and 

 tamely with their domestic neighbours ; but in only one 

 instance did he know of a Piing Dove breeding in confine- 

 ment. This was a female, taken young, which received her 

 liberty when fully grown, but, instead of flying back to the 

 woods, she paired with a bachelor domestic Pigeon in a 

 dovecote in^ the town of Cumnock. The pair had eggs 

 three times, although only one young bird was reared ; it 

 was larger than the domestic Pigeon, and resembled the 

 female parent in its general markings. As mentioned in 

 former Editions of this work, the late Mr. Thomas Allis, of 



* Mr. Frank Norgate (Zoologist, 1878, p. 106) states that on February 1st lie 

 shot four young Ring Doves in Norfolis, one of wliich retained the long downy 

 filaments on the upper wing-coverts. 



