BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



STOCK DOVE'S NEST AND 

 EGG. 



DOVE, STOCK. 



(Columba oenas.} 

 Order COLUMBA ; Family COLUMBHXE (PIGEONS). 



Description of Parent Birds. 

 Length about thirteen and 

 a half inches. Bill of medium 

 length, nearly straight, and 

 pale red, whitish at the tip. 

 Irides brown. Head, neck, 

 and upper parts of back deep 

 bluish-grey, glossed on the 

 sides of the neck with green 

 and purplish - red. Wing- 

 coverts bluish-grey, spotted 

 and marked with black on the 

 greater ones ; quills brownish- 

 grey, turning bluer towards the tips. Rump and 

 upper tail-coverts pale bluish-grey. Tail bluish-grey 

 for about two-thirds of its entire length, then 

 crossed by a band of lighter ash-grey, and the end > 

 which is rounded, of so dark a grey that it may 

 almost be described as black ; the exterior webs of 

 the outside feathers nearly white. Breast pale red- 

 dish-purple ; belly, thighs, and under tail-coverts 

 ash-grey ; legs and toes red. 



The female is a little smaller, and her markings 

 are not so well defined. 



Situation and Locality. In hollow trees, rabbit- 

 holes, crevices of rock ; in quarries and cliffs, old 

 Crow's or Magpie's nests ; in ivy growing against 

 trees, rocks, towers, and steeples ; and sometimes 

 quite on the ground, under dense furze bushes. 

 The young birds figured in our illustration were 



