AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 281 



116. STOCK-DOVE. 



Columba cenas. 



This bird, which is generally known hereabouts as 

 Rock-Dove, is always more or less common with us 

 during the spring and summer, but the great majority 

 leave us at the first severe frosts of October, to 

 reappear in February or the first days of March. In 

 general habits this species much resembles the 

 Wood-Pigeon, but differs from that bird in the 

 selection of its nesting-sites, usually, in this neigh- 

 bourhood, the cavities of ash and beech trees, holes 

 in old walls, and beams of our church-belfries ; in 

 open countries the Stock-Dove often makes use of 

 deserted rabbit-burrows, and, strangely enough, in 

 this district, with its abundance of hollow trees and 

 ruins, we have several times found the eggs of this 

 bird in holes scratched by rabbits at the main roots 

 of our ash and elm trees. Two or three pairs of 

 Stock-Doves might always be found nesting in the 

 ivy-clad crannies of Barnwell Castle in our bird- 

 nesting days, and a pair used to nest in the belfry of 

 our parish church at Achurch, from our earliest 

 recollection till the restoration of the church-steeple 

 some thirty years ago. This bird appears to us to be 

 more addicted to green food than the Wood-Pigeon, 

 but it is also very fond of beech-mast; it is easily 

 decoyed if the shooter is well concealed, but is by far 

 the quickest-sighted bird of our acquaintance, and, 

 from its marvellous power of vision and rapid twists 

 in the air, by no means so easily brought to bag as 

 its heavier congener. In the pairing-season, early 

 in March, the hoarse guttural note of this bird may 



