356 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



■when he states that all individuals of the species leave 

 the neighbourhood towards the end of October, " none 

 remaining during the winter." This same accurate 

 naturalist states that the stock-dove, which in all 

 "works upon natural history is stated to be only an 

 inhabitant of woods, abounds in this neighbourhood 

 during the spring and summer months, upon our rabbit 

 warrens and heaths, to which it annually resorts for the 

 purpose of nidification ; and it is in general the first 

 that arrives in this district for that purpose. The 

 situation which it selects for its nest differs materially 

 from that chosen by its congeners, the ring and turtle 

 doves (G. pakimbiis, C. turtur), the nests of which are 

 always placed either upon trees or bushes : this species, 

 on the contrary, occupies the deserted rabbit burrows 

 upon warrens ; it places its pair of eggs about a yard 

 from the entrance, generally upon the bare sand, some- 

 times using a small quantity of dried roots, &c., barely 

 sufiicient to keep the eggs from the ground. Besides 

 such situations, on the heaths it nestles under the thick 

 furze bushes (JJlex europcea), which are impervious to 

 rain, in consequence of the sheep and rabbits eating off 

 the young and tender shoots as they grow, always 

 preferring those bushes that have a small opening made 

 by the rabbits near the ground. A few pairs occasionally 

 breed in the holes of decayed trees : this is of rare 

 occurrence in this district. It generally commences 

 breeding by the end of March, or the beginning of 

 April; the young ones, which are very much esteemed, 

 being ready for the table by the commencement of 

 June." Mr. Alfred Newton tells me that the young 

 stock-doves, being a perquisite of the warreners, are a 

 source of not inconsiderable profit to them, as they sell 

 them for from eighteen pence to two shillings a couple, 

 and that in consequence almost every warrener keeps a 

 *' dowe-dawg," i. e. a dog regularly trained to discover 



