THE TURTLE DOVE 
TURTUR AURITUS 
Loca names in surrounding counties: ‘“ Little Dove ” 
(Essex). 
Status 1N British AviraunA: A somewhat local 
summer visitor to all suitable places in England and 
Wales ; rarer in Ireland, and of only accidental occurrence 
in Scotland. 
RapiaL DisTrRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES oF ST. 
Paut’s: The Turtle Dove is a regular summer visitor to all 
parts of the Metropolitan area suited to its requirements. 
It does not appear yet to have invaded, as a breeding 
species, any of the urban parks and private grounds, yet 
it occasionally visits some of them during the seasons 
of migration. It is recorded as a visitor to such com- 
paratively central localities as Wandsworth and Dulwich, 
Highgate and Hampstead. Further afield in the more 
rural suburbs it is found in summer at Wimbledon, is 
fairly abundant at Richmond, Kew, Bushey, Hounslow, 
Osterley, Sudbury, and Wembley. ‘Thence I can trace 
it through the Harrow, Pinner, Barnet, Hendon, Enfield, 
and Waltham districts to Epping, and southwards to 
Wanstead, Dagenham, and Rainham, across the river into 
Kent, where Dartford, the Crays, and Farnborough, with 
many intervening places, are summer haunts. It is also 
found regularly in the Croydon area, as well as in those 
of Banstead, Merton, Ewell, Epsom, Esher, Ditton, and 
Kingston. Beyond our radius there are many haunts of the 
Turtle Dove, especially in Surrey and in Bucks and Berks. 
The Turtle Dove sometimes reaches Greater London 
by the end of April, but more generally the beginning of 
May is the time of its arrival. ‘There are many private 
grounds and orchards in the suburbs to which this species 
is a regular summer visitor, and the time may come 
258 
