_— i 
_ TURTLE-DOVE. 413 
The.Turtle-Dove has not arrived many days ere it seeks out a site for 
its nest, and the eggs are usually laid in the latter half of May or early in 
June. The nest is sometimes built in a tall dense hedge, sometimes in 
an evergreen bush or in the branches of a pine-tree; as a rule, however, 
it is generally much nearer to the ground than that of the Ring-Dove, 
sometimes within easy reach of the hand. It is usually a slight flat 
structure made of slender twigs, but I have occasionally found it to be 
more substantially made. The eggs are two in number, creamy white in 
colour, like those of the Stock-Dove, and oval in form, both ends being 
almost equally pointed; they vary in length from 1°25 to 1-1 inch, and 
in breadth from ‘94 to ‘86 inch. The small size of the eggs of the Turtle- 
Dove prevents them being confused with those of any other British species 
of Pigeon. Both birds assist in the task of incubation, and in many 
cases two broods are reared in the year. 
The food of the Turtle-Dove is chiefly composed of grain and small 
seeds, but, doubtless, like its near allies the Pigeons, it varies this. diet 
with land-shells and fruit. Like the rest of the Pigeons, the Turtle-Dove 
drinks frequently and regularly. It is said by some writers that it only 
takes fresh water; but Stevenson, in his ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ notices its 
partiality for salt, and thinks that this is the reason why it occurs so 
abundantly near the coast. Other Pigeons are known to prefer brackish 
water to fresh. 
Like its cousins the Pigeons, the Turtle-Dove often flies far to feed, 
and small parties of these birds, as well as of Stock-Doves, may be con- 
stantly seen in spring on the Wallachian steppes ten miles or more from 
a tree or even a bush. I have shot them on these prairies as late as the 
28th of May. The flight of this bird is very powerful, and often accom- 
panied with loud clashing together of the wings. On the ground it runs 
among the earth clods with great ease, continually depressing its head 
and contracting its neck. 
Dixon, when in Algeria, made the following notes on this bird :—‘‘ The 
Turtle-Dove is very common in the oases, and by no means uncommon 
on the wooded sides of the Aurés, two or three thousand feet above sea- 
level, in the evergreen-oak scrub. Although May had far advanced, I am 
inclined io think that many of the birds we saw in the extreme south 
were migrants, on their way northwards to Europe. ‘The birds were 
gregarious in the oases, and were often in company with the Egyptian 
Turtle-Dove. Almost every date-palm contained one or two of these 
beautiful birds, and they seemed very fond of hiding themselves among 
the thick foliage, rarely perching on the outside of the tree. They were 
not at all shy, and seldom left their retreat before the report of a gun 
drove them out. Numbers of these birds visited the almost dried-up river 
to drink, usually in the early morning. ‘They roosted in the date-palms, 
