THE STOCK DOVE. 143 



to my collection. On revisiting the place about six weeks 

 later, namely, on the 3rd of June, in company with Mr. 

 Muirhead of Paxton, we were not a little astonished to find 

 that the nest contained two fine young ones almost fully 

 feathered, and we again saw the old bird leave the hole." ^ 



Mr. Bolam states that, about the middle of April 1880, 

 he discovered another nest with two eggs on the banks of 

 the Whitadder, near Edrington, in a slight natural depres- 

 sion of the ground at the bottom of a whin bush, and 

 sheltered by long grass, which, growing from both above 

 and below, completely concealed it from view.^ 



Mr. Harvie-Brown mentions that in 1881 a bushy lime- 

 tree in the grounds of Duns Castle, where the nest of this 

 bird had been found, was pointed out to him by Mr. Wait, 

 bird-stuffer, Duns.^ 



Dr. Stuart, Chirnside, has informed me that a Stock 

 Dove had its nest in a rabbit hole in a terrace below Black- 

 adder House in the spring of 1884 ; and Mr. John Thomson, 

 Maxton, has written to me that "the bird is now (1886) 

 pretty frequently met with at Mertoun, Dryburgh, Cowden 

 Knowes, and Drygrange," Mr. Eobert Campbell-Eenton, 

 yr. of Mordington, told me on the 5th of May 1887 that a 

 pair had their nest that year in a thick silver fir near the 

 stables there, and that the bird was becoming so plentiful 

 about Mordington that he had killed ten or twelve specimens 

 while shooting Wood Pigeons during the previous winter. 

 On the 12th of May 1887 I saw a Stock Dove fly from 

 its nest at the Eaven's Craig, near Fellcleugh, on the 

 Whitadder, thus showing that it has extended its breeding 

 grounds towards the Lammermuir Hills. 



This bird does not appear to have been observed in 

 Scotland before 1874 or 1875, when it was seen in Perth- 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. aub, vol. ix. pp. 165, 166. 2 ji^a^ vol. ix. p. 166. 



3 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society, 1881-83, p. 252. 



