RING-DOVE. 399 
smell ; and these excrements are never removed from the nest (as is the 
case with the Starling, for instance), but are suffered to remain. They 
soon harden on being exposed to the air, and, combined with the platform 
of sticks, form a structure, sone and durable, for the young birds to 
‘inhabit until they are able to fly.” 
The food of the Ring-Dove is varied, but conthied chiefly to vegetable 
substances. In the summer they subsist on tender shoots of clover, green 
corn, peas, beans, and even fruit; and I have taken from the crops of 
nestling birds ears of corn, small pieces of flinty stone, and numbers of 
small land and freshwater shells. In autumn, when the birds to a great 
extent become gregarious and assemble in large and small flocks, often of 
a thousand birds or more, the Ring-Dove’s diet is changed; then it eats 
all kinds of ripe grain, the seeds of vetches and other plants, many of 
which are very troublesome to the agriculturist. At this season they 
search under the oak trees for acorns and under the beech trees for mast, 
sometimes feeding in the branches. They also frequent the stubbles, 
especially those sown with clover. It also eats many kinds of fruits and 
berries, such as hips and haws, blackberries, holly- and yew-berries. It 
has also been |known to eat hazel-nuts, which it swallows whole; and in 
winter, when hard-pressed for food, it will consume the slender shoots of 
sprouting turnips and has even been found with its crop distended with 
large pieces of the turnip itself, which had probably been nibbled by sheep. 
It is an extremely voracious feeder, and consequently, where the bird is 
numerous, it is a great pest to the farmer. Great flights of Ring-Doves 
come to this country in autumn, which chiefly frequent the open fields in 
the daytime, but at dusk retire to the neighbouring plantations and woods 
to roost. The Ring-Dove at this season is silent, its well-known call being 
peculiar to the breeding-season. ‘his bird drinks very frequently, and is 
also fond of bathing and sanding itself. Like other Pigeons, it is very 
fond of salt and has been observed to eat seaweed left bare on the rocks at 
low water. As some sort of recompense for the great damage it does to 
the crops, it must be remembered that the flesh of this bird is very 
palatable, and enormous numbers find their way into the markets. The 
Ring-Dove is easily kept in confinement when taken yonng, and there are 
several instances on record where it has even bred in captivity. 
The general colour of the upper parts of the Ring-Dove are pale slate- 
grey or lavender-colour, suffused with a metallic gloss on the nape and 
sides of the neck, which is emerald-green in some lights and pinkish purple 
in others. On each side of the neck is a large patch of white ; the mantle, 
scapulars, and innermost secondaries are greyish brown, shading into 
lavender on the wing-coverts, but suddenly changing to white on the 
outside web of the outermost wing-coverts. The primary-coverts are dark 
brown ; the wings are dark brown, each feather margined with white on 
