88 THE BIRDS OF THE WOODS 



itself to woods, but rarely those from which pines are absent. The nest is usually 

 built on some bough from 10 to 100 feet above the ground, and is flat and 

 round or oblong, and so roughly made that the eggs can frequently be seen in it 

 from underneath. In the middle of April, or even so late as July, the hen lays 

 a couple of white eggs, which in due course hatch out; but at the slightest 

 disturbance she is apt to abandon both nest and eggs, and sometimes even a nest 

 containing the young, which will invariably be found to be looking in opposite 

 directions. In some parts of Europe, as, for instance on the North Frisian Islands 

 and in Schleswig-Holstein, where the ring-dove chiefly lives in gardens, the bird 

 has lost much of its shyness ; as it has in the Dutch cities, where it builds in the 

 old trees bordering the canals, and in London. Besides pine-seeds, the ring-dove 

 eats peas and many other seeds, mainly of wild plants. It is a shy, brisk bird, 

 alive to every danger in time, with a swift and strong flight. 



The wood-pigeon always pairs for life. Early in the morning the cock begins 

 to coo his song to his mate ; then both preen themselves, and fly off" to their feed- 

 ing-places, where they remain cooing a little from time to time till about ten o'clock, 

 when they fly back to the trees, and an hour later visit their drinking - place. 

 After a noontide slumber, which lasts till about three or a little after, they repair 

 once more to their feeding-grounds, returning between live and seven to the trees, 

 whence, before their night's rest, they once more fly off to drink. This handsome 

 bird, which is about 16 inches long, and generally grey in colour, with a white 

 patch on the side of its neck, ranges from western France and Spain to northern 

 Persia. It is found in Sweden, where it ranges up to the 65th degree of latitude, 

 in the British Isles, where it remains during the winter, and is abundant in 

 many parts of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Russia. In Greece it winters, 

 as it also does in Turkey and Asia Minor, and the same latitudes farther 

 west, while on the autumn migration it crosses the Mediterranean to Morocco 

 and Algiers. 



Hollow trees in patches of woodland bordering fields and 

 meadows are the favourite abode of the stock -dove (G. cenas). 

 On the lower Danube, where there are extensive forests of willows, this species 

 lives in large numbers. Its nest is merely a twig or two dropped into a hole or on 

 the bole of a tree, and generally there is nothing but the bare wood on which 

 the eggs are laid. Not only hollows in trees, but rabbit-burrows, clefts in cliffs, 

 and corners in church-towers, and old nests of other birds are taken possession of 

 by the stock-dove for the purpose of raising its brood. It has three broods a year 

 — the first in early April, the second in July, and the third in August, each in a 

 different place, probably because the young make the nest so foul, though in some 

 places the old birds are said to return to the same nests in succession every year. 

 The stock-dove is distinguished from the ring-dove by the bill being white at the 

 tip instead of yellow, and by the patch on the neck having no white. In Britain it 

 is never found in flocks, as it frequently is on the Continent. Its food is similar to 

 that of the ring-dove, except that this bird seems to have no special liking for 

 mustard-seed, and is rather more addicted to acorns and beech-mast. A good many 

 stock-doves migrate south, and are met with in northern Africa ; but if the 

 weather be mild they return north as early as February or March. This species 



