The Stock Dove. oD 
ship was the more remarkable as the Stock Dove is 
abroad during the day, while the owl isa night feeder, 
and thus, when the young were hatched, there could 
have been but little rest in either home. Notwith- 
standing their different habits and dispositions, both 
birds went about their duties peaceably, and did not 
seem inclined to molest one another. 
The Stock Dove does not always nest in trees, but, 
like other birds and animals, adapts its habits to 
the surrounding circumstances. Hence we find it 
breeding in considerable numbers in the open tree- 
less country in some parts of England and Scotland, 
more especially on the eastern coasts near the sea- 
shore. There being no trees in sueh districts, the 
Stock Dove has to find some convenient place in 
which to rear its young, and often uses a deserted 
rabbit burrow as a nesting place, laying its eggs, 
sometimes on a few sticks, but often on the bare 
ground, about a yard inside the hole. Occasionally 
one may find a nest under a thick furze bush. 
Two broods are reared in the year, the first eggs 
being laid at the end of March or the beginning of 
April. The eggs are pure white, and almost iden- 
tical in size and shape with those of a domestic 
pigeon. Both parents take their turn at the nest, 
and sit very closely for seventeen days, when the 
young are hatched. When about four or five days 
