180 PIGEONS AND DOVES. 



be studied almost anywhere at leisure ; and the wild 

 bird, when seen flocking in the stubble lands, often 

 with other birds, or frequenting the weedy back- 

 plots inshore in hard weather, can be recognised at 

 once by the white of the lower back and the bold, 

 black double bar on the wing. 



TURTLE-DOVE. 11 inches. Upper parts ruddy ; 

 grayer on head, nape, and lower back ; small patch 

 of mixed black and white on each side of hind- neck ; 

 wings grayish on shoulder, flight - feathers dark ; 

 breast wine-colour ; belly white ; central tail-feathers 

 dark, the outer ones white at the side, and all tipped 

 white at the ends ; bill brown ; feet red. Summer 

 migrant. 



Eggs. 2, creamy- white, one end less rounded than 

 the other; 1-2 * '9 inch (plate 129). 



Nest. Slightly built of twigs, and placed on the 

 branch of a tree or in a dense bush. 



Distribution. As a breeding bird, ranges from the 

 south of England up to Yorkshire and Westmorland, 

 but rare or unknown elsewhere. 



The Turtle-Dove comes to us in late April as a 

 migrant, and at times of migration occurs more 

 generally. Being of a ruddy appearance and of 

 slighter build, it is easily distinguished from the 

 grayer home Doves. It is a denizen of the wood- 

 lands, where it lays on a branch of a tree or larger 

 bush the scanty platform of sticks that serves it for 

 nest, and where its low ' Coo-r-r ! coo-r-r ! ' may be 



