BIRD NOTES 41 



TURTLE DOVES 



One of my most interesting memories is of the 

 days when, as a lad, I used to wander among the thick- 

 spreading furze that, up to the 'seventies, smothered 

 the North Denes. In the "holls" or depressions 

 between the heaps of blown sand, crowned by a 

 luxuriant growth of the yellow-flowered furze, might 

 often be seen small flocks of Turtle Doves (Turtur 

 communis), more often in the early morning before 

 their greatest enemy was afoot with gun and bad 

 intent. Mistle Thrushes and Wood Pigeons, too, 

 came with them, to hunt for food of what kind I 

 could not imagine, unless it was for the succulent 

 leaves of the sea bindweed and the great seedpods 

 that later on followed the pale pink trumpet-shaped 

 flowers. Thrushes, too, came in search of the 

 nemoralis crawling among the grass while the dew 

 was still upon it. I have seen over twenty Doves 

 in a flock. Whinchats, Stonechats, and Wheatears 

 nested then in some numbers, as did occasional Com- 

 mon and Red-legged Partridges. But it was the 

 low, plaintive, melancholy coo-coo of the Turtle that 

 always tempted me to watch him, in preference to all 

 the others ; for the thoughts of his far-away home in 



