xxix. WOODPIGEON SHOOTING (PART III) 463 



bush as you walk past in summer, and not often the 

 woodpigeon the latter as a rule building in a higher 

 situation. It is quite a third smaller than the common 

 woodpigeon, and is easily known, apart from its size, 

 by its having no white round the neck or any white 

 on the wings. From its resemblance to the rock (or 

 coast-frequenting) dove, it is often called a blue rock 

 by keepers inland, who only know the real rock dove 

 by hearsay. 



(3) The ROCK DOVE is of the same size as the ' stock 

 dove,' which it closely resembles on the wing at a 

 short distance. It has, however, a patch of white on 

 the Imck, above the root of the tail, not present in the 

 ' stock dove,' and is besides entirely a coast bird, 

 living and nesting about the cliffs. I have never seen 

 or shot one in a wood or inland, though I have killed 

 hundreds of them on the coast within easy reach of 

 large woods. To drop a couple of rock doves right 

 and left as you stand in a boat that is pitching about 

 in front of the cave they emerge from, like arrows more 

 than birds, is the perfection of good aiming ! 



(4) THE TURTLE DOVE. A pretty little fellow, much 

 the smallest of all four pigeons, a spring and summer 

 visitor that arrives after the shooting season is over, 

 and, from its small size and darting flight, looks more 

 like a small hawk or a golden plover on the wing than 

 a pigeon. It nests in our islands but sparingly. 



