184 IJIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



a rabbit-burrow is a very favourite nesting situation, 

 varied occasionall.y by a cleft in some precipitous bank, 

 and often under the shelter of a tree-root. Here, about 

 arm's-length from the mouth, the two eggs are laid on 

 a few sticks gathered together, and fresh ones may be 

 found from so early as the first week in March to the 

 first week in May. Two sets of young are brought up 

 each spring, and in one instance Mr. T. Altham found 

 two fr.esh eggs, in the same hole as, and close to, the 

 nearly fledged young of the former hatching. In winter, 

 owing to its flocking with the Ring-Dove, it is not so 

 often observed, and is probably more numerous than is 

 supposed. Mr. Hugh P. Hornby writes me that whilst 

 out at dusk trying for Wood-Pigeons at Winmarleigh on 

 January 8th, 1884, he killed four birds from separate 

 flocks of a dozen or fifteen which flew past him, and 

 these all proved to be Stock-Doves. 



EOCK-DOVE. 



CoLUMBA LiviA, Bonnaterre. 



Much confusion exists locally as to the present 

 species, owing to its name being used in many places to 

 represent the Stock-Dove, and matters are not mended 

 by the fact that Stock-Dove is the name almost invari- 

 ably used for the Ring-Dove. The Rock-Dove is of rare 

 occurrence in Lancashire, and this is not to be wondered 

 at when its preference for a rocky and cave-indented 

 sea-coast is considered. It breeds, however, at Whit- 

 barrow Scar, in Westmorland, just over the border, and 

 Mr. T. Jackson says that he sees it near Overton with 

 the Ring-Doves, and that it occasionallv breeds in an 



