Their Eggs and Nests. 145 



dry grass ; very often far back in holes and crevices 

 of the rock ; and lays two white eggs, with a much 

 better defined " big end " and " little end " than in the 

 case of the two Pigeons last named. 



TURTLE DOVE — {Turtur communis; formerly, 

 Columha turtur). 



Turtle, Common Turtle, Ring-necked Turtle, Wrekin 

 Dove. — Only a summer visitor and not a regular 

 inhabitant, like its three predecessors. It is long 

 since, living where I do, I have heard its sweet, 

 plaintive note. No one but one who loves birds and 

 their ways can tell how real a deprivation it is to live 

 for years out of sound of the sweet and familiar voices 

 of such as are only local: the Nightingale for instance, 

 the Turtle, and many others. The male Turtle Dove 

 is a very handsome bird, but much shier and more 

 retiring at breeding-time than the Ring Dove. The 

 nest is a light platform of sticks, easily permitting 

 the sky to be seen through it from below, and usually 

 placed high up in a holly, a thick bush in a wood, in 

 the branches of a fir, or the lesser fork of some limb 

 of an oak or other forest tree. As with the other 

 Doves, the eggs are two in number, quite white, about 

 \\ inch long, by f broad. 



PASSENGER PIGEON— (^^/^//j/^j migratorius). 



Every bird-loving boy, beyond doubt, has heard of 

 this Pigeon and the inconceivable vastness of the 

 flocks in which they pass from one distant district to 

 another in America. Here it is only a casual visitor, 

 and can lawfully lay claim to none of our limited space. 



