STOCK-DOVE. 357 



the burrows in which the doves breed. Mr. Scales, of 

 Beechamwell, adds that " when the warreners find them 

 in a burrow, they fix sticks at the mouth of the hole in 

 such a manner as to prevent the escape of the young, 

 but to allow the old birds to feed them." Mr. Newton, 

 however, informs me that this precaution is thought to 

 be unnecessary for the more experienced warreners, 

 from long practice, know to a day (by once seeing the 

 nestlings) when they will be fit to take. Along the 

 extensive range of sandhills in the neighbourhood of 

 Hunstanton,* also, the stock-doves may be found 

 breeding in considerable numbers, and likewise on 

 Holt heath and other similar localities ; indeed, I 

 have no doubt that with careful observation a few 

 pairs might be found in summer in many rough 

 furze-covered spots where rabbits are preserved, but 

 this peculiarity in the habits of the stock-dove 

 is by no means generally known. In 1863, a friend 

 of mine, whilst ferreting on Mr. George's farm, at 

 Eaton, near Norwich, was not a little surprised at 

 seeing a pigeon flutter out of a rabbit's hole (half 

 hidden by thick gorse, in the steep side of a sandpit), 

 into which he had just previously turned his ferret ; 

 the bird was caught by a terrier before it could take 

 flight and proved to be an old stock-dove, but on a 

 subsequent examination of the burrow no eggs or young 

 were found. I may add that in that neighbourhood 

 the bird is by no means common. This species, 

 however, in certain districts, also breeds in our woods 

 and plantations with the common ringdove, but in 

 such situations it nests either in the holes of old trees, 



* These birds occur twice in the "Privy Purse Accounts" of 

 the Lestranges, of Hunstanton, as follows : Itm in rewarde the 

 xvij. daye of Novembre to Osbert Beds sone, for bryngyng of 

 etockdowes. " Itm ij stockdowes of gyste." 



