AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 283 



superior, to our taste, to that of the Wood-Pigeon ; 

 and we can confirm in every particular the account 

 given in Yarrell of the custom of the warreners of 

 West Norfolk and Suffolk of hunting for the young 

 doves with dogs trained for the purpose, and making 

 " a very good thing " by extracting and selling them. 

 In most parts of the south of Europe with which we 

 are acquainted the present species occurs as an 

 autumnal migrant, but in Rhenish Prussia we found 

 it sparingly during the summer in the neighbourhood 

 of Neuenahr. 



In April 1894 a pair of Kestrels took possession 

 of, and reared a brood in, a hollow ash tree in the 

 park at Lilford, upon a nest in which a Stock-Dove 

 had laid an egg. 



117. TURTLE-DOVE. 



Columba turtur. 



This species, which was entirely unknown in the 

 neighbourhood of Lilford in our school-days, has 

 gradually become a regular and sometimes abundant 

 summer visitor to our district, and our country people 

 are all now well acquainted with the " Little Brown 

 Dove," as they usually call the subject of this article. 

 The Turtle-Dove arrives with us generally very late 

 in April or in the first week of May, and resorts at 

 once to the old hawthorn bushes and the willows by 

 our rivers and brooks, which are its favourite nesting- 

 localities, though it will build in all sorts of situations 

 which afford quiet and concealment. The nest is an 

 artless platform of a few twigs ; the eggs, in common 

 with those of all the species of this family, are two in 



