OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 97 



ROCK DOVE. 



WHILST in the Hebrides last summer, I was, 

 during a spell of calm weather, able to explore 

 several caves on the Atlantic seaboard and ex- 

 amine numbers of Kock Doves' nests therein at 

 leisure. In one quite small and dome-like cavern 

 I found every available ledge utilised, and quantities 

 of building material lying on the floor of the cave 

 told of impossibly narrow shelves of rock above 

 having been tried as lodgments for a nest. 



When Odin, the Viking king, leapt at a bound 

 from the famous seal-clubbing rocks of Hysgier, 

 some eight or nine miles to the west of the Outer 

 Hebrides, in order to escape the fury of his irate 

 queen, and alighted upon the shores of North Uist, 

 his heels, according to tradition, smote the ground 

 so sharply that he broke chimney holes in the 

 roofs of a couple of sea-hewn caves. I visited the 

 bottoms of both these pits, and found a number of 

 Kock Doves' nests, from which the owners thereof 

 dashed in great haste, a very solicitous mother 

 Rock Pipit, and ample evidences that a pair of 

 disappointed Eavens roosted therein. My friend, 

 Hector H. Mackenzie, of Balelone, kindly acted 

 the part of guide to these somewhat nether regions, 

 which form splendid timber traps during winter 

 gales. Whilst we were engaged picking up Ravens' 

 feathers the birds came along, and my friend told 

 nie of the damage the pair had wrought him by 

 attacking the tongues and eyes of partly-born 

 lambs whose mothers were in extremis. 



It was near to the holes made by Odin's heels 



that we obtained the photograph of a Rock Dove's 



nest herewith reproduced. The bird sat very 



closely on it, and when disturbed darted out like 



H 



