518 THE PIGEONS 



driven away her suitor, will often bow as her crestfallen swain is 

 retiring. 



While the stock-dove is almost silent during his courtship, this is 

 by no means true of the rock-dove, whose notes recall those of the 

 wood-pigeon "coo, coo, roo, coo" and it is particularly vociferous 

 during the early spring, when the male is intent on wooing. " At this 

 season of the year," remarks Seebohm, " the male may often be seen 

 performing various antics, and caressing his mate on the rocks, in a 

 precisely similar manner to that of the domestic pigeon. He swells 

 out his throat, droops his wings, and spreads out his tail like a fan, all 

 the time serenading her with his soft winning notes ; and should she 

 take wing, he flies impetuously after her to repeat his courtship." 

 But according to Mr. J. L. Bonhote, both the stock-dove and the 

 rock-dove display something of the tyrant at this time, " driving the 

 hen for a few days before she lays. On these occasions his whole 

 time is spent in keeping her on the move, and he never lets her settle 

 or rest for a minute, except on the nest." J 



In their selection of a nursery these two birds present much in 

 common, since both find congenial accommodation amid the crevices 

 of sea-girt cliffs. But with the rock-dove such nesting-sites appear 

 to be indispensable, for it never alights in trees. The stock-dove, on 

 the other hand, nests also in limestone crags and quarries, hollow 

 trees, the heads of pollard willows, on the beams of old church 

 towers, squirrel dreys, and the deserted nests of other birds, e.g. 

 magpie or crow, and in rabbit-burrows. In the open districts of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk rabbit-warrens afford this bird excellent breeding 

 grounds. Some occupy deserted rabbit-burrows, laying their eggs 

 either upon the bare sand or a small quantity of fine roots, about a 

 yard from the entrance. Some, on the other hand, seek the centre of 

 dense furze bushes, using the entrance made by rabbits near the 

 ground. 2 The young, which are ready for table early in June, are 

 eagerly sought for by the warreners, to whom they are a considerable 



1 Bonhote, Birds of Britain, p. 272. l Stevenson, Birds of Norfolk, vol. i. p. 350. 



