4 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



note is a loud, full coo-roo-coo, most frequently repeated when the bird is in the 

 act of paying court to its mate. In autumn vast flights of this bird congregate in 

 chosen localities, migrants from Scandinavia, which fraternise with our indigenous 

 birds, and frequent the open fields during the day, seeking the fir plantations at 

 dusk to roost, where their homeward flight oft affords good sport to the gunner. 

 The King Dove drinks frequently, and is very fond of repairing to salt water. It 

 is a most voracious feeder, and in some districts commits great havoc on the crops of 

 beans and grain and the tender shoots of clover. During spring and summer it 

 feeds largely on shoots of herbage, mollusks, and seeds, and, as the autumn 

 advances, grain of all kinds, peas, acorns, beech-mast, fruits, berries, and even nuts 

 are devoured. In winter it has been known to feed on the tender shoots of turnips, 

 and even on pieces of the turnips themselves. At this season it will frequent 

 those places in the game coverts where maize is spread for the pheasants ; and 

 here good sport may often be obtained by lying in wait for the gluttonous pilferer. 

 This species does not frequent the coast anything nearly so much as the Stock Dove. 

 Vast numbers of Eing Doves occasionally visit the British Islands in Jate autumn 

 from continental Europe ; although it is interesting to remark that at Heligoland 

 the bird is seldom seen in large flights, but is observed in straggling parties and 

 singly both in spring and autumn. 



Nidification. From what I have observed I am of the opinion that the 

 Bing Dove pairs for life, and yearly nests in the same locality if not disturbed. 

 This species is an early and a prolonged breeder, commencing in March or 

 April and continuing to rear brood after brood until the autumn. The nest is 

 placed in a great variety of situations, both in evergreen and in deciduous trees 

 (the latter often before they are in leaf), and in bushes and amongst ivy on cliffs 

 or tree-trunks. Woods, plantations, odd trees in the hedgerows or trees in the 

 open fields, are selected without choice of situation, and the nest is placed at 

 varying heights. Mr. Witherby has recorded (Zoologist, 1895, p. 232) a very 

 interesting and remarkable instance of this bird nesting on the ground amongst 

 heather on a small island in Lough Cong, co. Galway, although suitable trees 

 were available. Two nests were discovered in such a situation ; and this fact 

 seems forcibly to illustrate how a species may initiate a change in its nesting 

 habits. It is worthy of remark that these curious nests were on islands, safe from 

 predatory animals ; and the habit, therefore, has every chance of becoming a more 

 general and permanent one. Mr. J. J. Armistead (op. cit. p. 275) records nests 

 " not a foot from the ground," in blackthorns, in the south of Scotland. The nest of 

 the Ring Dove is merely a few dead twigs arranged basket-like in a flat and almost 

 a shapeless mass. The eggs are normally two, but exceptionally one or three in 

 number, oval in form, and pure and spotless white. They are on an average 1'6 

 inch in length by 1'25 in breadth. They are sometimes laid one on each successive 

 day, but often a day is missed between each. Incubation lasts from seventeen to 



