THE STOCK-DOVE AND THE ROCK-DOVE 519 



of profit. In consequence, utmost even warrener keejw a 

 "daw-daw;:" -that is to say, a dog trained to discover the burrows 

 which contain tin .jiiai i\ 



The nest of the rock-dove, which is a ansntjr structure, is made of 

 dry grass or seaweed, a dead stick or two, and sometimes a bit of 



h.-athrr: and this ix laid on sonir mm riiicnt Icd^r in a lurk nwirr. 



or, for choice, in the roof of some great cave, and it would be hard to 

 find a more awe-inspiring chamber for a nursery. The roof, wherever 

 the daylight reaches it, stands revealed in all the colours of the 

 rainbow, strangely intermingled, the floor a shelving beach at low- 

 water, at high, and in rough weather a swirl of angry heaving waters 

 which, flinging themselves at the walls, fall in torrents with a 

 booming as of thunder. Every lodgn lodges a nest of cormorant! 

 or gulls, while puffins and pigeons share the crannies between them. 

 Though both birds take part in the work of incubation, the female 

 fHllfillBli the greater share of the task, but she is all the while 

 assiduously fed and tended by her mate. Two or three broods are 

 reared in the year, and it is significant that the eggs are slightly 

 smaller than those of the stock-dove, and that the young do not leave 

 the nest till well able to fly. 



Though, after the manner of its tribe, the clutch is limited to two 

 eggs, yet the stock-dove is a fairly prolific bird, rearing two broods in 

 a SBUM. Still it must have many enemies, for it is a comparatively 

 solitary species, and nowhere very abundant- m-aMir<d \<\ tin- 

 standard of the wood-pigeon. Nevertheless the stock-dove, remarks 

 Howard Saunders, 1 is a south-eastern species, which has been slowly 

 increasing its range throughout these islands during recent yean. 

 It was unknown in Northumberland, remarks Mr. Abel Chapman, till 

 the early eighties. Out of some thousands of wood-pigeons killed at 

 >ilksworth during twenty winters, not a single stock-dove was taken 

 till 1879, "then we got one which was considered a rarity." The 

 following winter three or four were taken, while during the winter of 



1 Umber and Warren, Bird* of Ireland, p. 223. 



