THE RING DOVE. 295 



out her is comparatively safe in its leafy site, for to the 

 casual eye it appears nothing more than a lodgment of 

 dry sticks accumulated there by accident during the 

 gales of the previous winter. 



When the two young are hatched the efforts of the 

 old birds are taxed to the utmost to supply them with 

 food, for judging from the times the parent birds visit 

 the nest, they are voracious feeders. Almost as regularly 

 as the Rook, we see the old Ring Doves passing rapidly 

 through the air to and from the nest. They do not feed 

 them like other birds, as the Thrush or the Warbler, but 

 from the crop, the young drawing their sustenance from 

 the bill of the parent, which sustenance is of a pulpy 

 nature. The young Ring Doves advance to maturity 

 somewhat slowly ; but, once able to fly, they are 

 abandoned by their parents, who ' often have another* 

 sometimes two more broods in the season, though, as far 

 as I can learn, not in the same nest. As an instance of 

 the late breeding of this species I may mention that I 

 have met with young birds in the middle of November 

 which have certainly not left the nest more than ten days 

 or a fortnight at most. 



Ring Doves are gregarious in the autumn and winter 

 months. At these times it is no uncommon thing to 

 observe them in immense flocks on the stubbles or turnip 

 fields. In such numbers do these birds occur, that I 

 am led to believe that this bird is partially migratory, 

 and augmented in numbers in the late autumn months. 

 When we bear in mind the small number of the birds 

 produced at once, and the incessant plundering of their 

 nests, both when they contain eggs and when the young 

 are almost ready for flight, we are forced to the con- 

 clusion that the large number of birds seen in autumn 

 and winter are birds from other localities, it may be 



