I 



THE RING DOVE. 139 



The Cushat begins to build in April, and continues to 

 breed the whole season through until September, or even 

 the beginning of October, August being a favourite month 

 on account of the plentiful supply of food in the shape of 

 ripening grain. 



The well-known nest is constructed of small sticks and 

 twigs, which are often so loosely put together that the eggs 

 can be seen by a person looking up from below. In some 

 instances, however, a new nest is constructed on the top of 

 an old one, as in the illustration given below. Although 

 the bird usually nests in fir woods and plantations at a 

 distance from the habitations of men, yet it often throws 

 aside its natural timidity and selects a situation close to a 

 dwelling-house. Several pairs used to breed in the trees 

 around my house at Paxton every year, and were then so 

 tame that they allowed people to approach within a few 

 yards of the branch upon which they were perched before 

 they took to flight. It is thought that their motive in 

 selecting a site for their nests near dwelling-houses is to 

 avoid the danger of being robbed by Hooded Crows or 

 Hawks. They likewise frequently rear their young in tall 

 thorn hedges which surround corn-fields, a position in which 

 I have often seen their nests in East-Lothian. The eggs are 

 two in number, and pure white.^ 



Any variation in the plumage of the Cushat is rare, but 

 the occurrence of a white specimen at Lintlaw during the 

 winter of 1874 is mentioned by Mr. John Anderson, Preston, 

 who also states that " there was another for two or three 

 years among the woods on the Marygold Hills, where it was 

 a very conspicuous object when sitting on the top of a lofty 

 spruce fir ; but, unfortunately, in the spring of 1869 it was 

 shot by a crow-herd." ^ I have a pure white example in my 



1 Boys Huck Cushats' eggs, which they think make them long-^vinded. 

 " Hist. Ber, Nat. Club, vol. vii. p. 515. 



