HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



and some good-sized old trees, where birds were 

 abundant, many of them still breeding. Here, down 

 to the end of September, I found turtle-doves' nests 

 with newly - hatched young and incubated eggs. I 

 always felt more than compensated for scratches and 

 torn clothes when I found young turtle-doves in the 

 down, as the little creatures are then delightful to 

 look at. Sitting hunched up on its platform, the head 

 with its massive bulbous beak drawn against its arched 

 back, the little thing is less like a bird than a mammal 

 in appearance a singularly coloured shrew, let us say. 

 The colour is indeed strange, the whole body, the thick, 

 fleshy, snout-like beak included, being a deep, intense, 

 almost indigo blue, and the loose hair-like down on the 

 head and upper parts a light, bright primrose yellow. 



There are surprising colours in some young birds: 

 the cirl nestling, as we have seen, is black and crimson 

 clothed in black down with gaping crimson mouth ; 

 loveliest of all is the young snipe in down of brown- 

 gold, frosted with silvery white ; but for quaintness 

 and fantastic colouring the turtle-dove nestling has no 

 equal. In all of our native doves, and probably in all 

 doves everywhere, the skin is blue and the down 

 yellow, but the colours differ in intensity. I tried 

 to find a newly-hatched stock-dove to compare it with 

 the turtle nestling but failed, although the species 

 is quite common and, like the other two, breeds till 

 October. Ring-dove nestlings were easy to see, but 

 in these the blue colour, though deep on the beak 



