248 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



dove. The birds alight in the same feeding grounds, 

 though experiments have proved that they do not 

 invariably feed upon the same food. For instance, 

 in the case of two birds killed at one shot, the crop 

 of a ring-dove contained clover leaves, turnip tops 

 and pulp; whilst that of the stock-dove was without 

 a leaf of clover, but contained a quantity of charlock, 

 barley and the seeds of weeds. 



From this fact it may be seen that wild pigeons 

 may do good as well as harm. .Like the ring-dove, 

 the stock-dove is an early breeder. The pairing 

 notes are not so pleasant, being neither so round nor 

 so full as the cooing of the cushat. When the bird 

 breeds in a burrow, only a few sticks or bents are 

 collected, and sometimes the eggs are simply de- 

 posited on the dry soil. These are creamy white; 

 they hatch in about seventeen days, and the young 

 come quickly to maturity. No sooner do they quit 

 the nest than another couple of eggs are laid; and this 

 goes on until the end of July. The nests are from 

 two to three feet down the burrow, and in flying 

 homewards the birds drop right at the mouth of the 

 hole, and not at a distance, as is sometimes stated. 

 There is abundant evidence that the food of this 

 species consists less of cultivated crops and more of 

 the seeds of weeds and grasses, beech-mast and 

 acorns. If this characteristic is continued as the 

 species increases in number (and this it is certainly 



