1 24 WOOD PIGEON. 



WOOD PIGEON. 



RING DOVE. CUSHAT. QUEEST. 



PLATE CXXXIV. FIGURE I. 



Columba palumbus, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



THE nest, wide and shallow, placed usually at a 

 height of from sixteen to twenty feet from the 

 ground, is little more than a rude platform of a few 

 crossed sticks and twigs, the largest as the foundation, 

 so thinly laid together that the eggs or young may 

 sometimes be discovered from below. It is often built 

 in woods and plantations, but not unfrequently also 

 in single trees, even those that are close to houses, 

 roads, and lanes, the oak and the beech, the fir or 

 any other suitable one, or even in ivy against a wall, 

 rock, or tree, or in a thick bush or shrub in a garden, 

 or an isolated thorn, even in the thick part, so that 

 in flying out in a hurry, if alarmed, many of the 

 loosely-attached feathers are pulled out. One pair 

 built in a spruce fir not ten yards from a garden gate, 

 where they were constantly liable to disturbance by 

 the ringing of the bell, and the passing in and out of 

 the members of the family. Another pair dwelt two 

 years in succession close to a window by a frequented 

 walk, and this though a cat destroyed the young. 



