ROCK-DOVE. 407 



on the fields near the sea ; but often traverses enormous distances to its 

 feeding-grounds. The Rock-Doves on St. Kilda are said to visit the 

 Hebrides daily in search of food, a distance of about seventy miles. Upon 

 the ground it runs arid walks in true Pigeon style, bobbing the head back- 

 wards and forwards at each step. Its flight is very rapid and powerful. 

 The Rock-Dove is not so shy as the Ring-Dove ; but it is nevertheless a 

 very wary bird, and generally examines the ground closely before it alights, 

 and even when settled on a field it usually looks warily from side to side 

 before it begins to feed. The note of this bird does not differ perceptibly 

 from that of the Ring-Dove, and is soft and full coo, coo, roo-coo. It is 

 particularly noisy in the early spring, and the cliffs often resound with its 

 cries in those districts where these birds are at all numerous. At this 

 season of the year the male may often be seen performing various antics, 

 and caressing his mate on the rocks, in a precisely similar manner to that 

 of the Domestic Pigeon. He swells out his throat, droops his wings, and 

 spreads out his tail like a fan, all the time serenading her with his soft 

 winning notes ; and should she take wing, he flies impetuously after her, to 

 repeat his courtship. The Rock-Dove rarely, if ever, perches on a tree, 

 and thus differs very widely from all the other British species of Pigeons. 

 It never alights except upon rocks or on the bare ground. 



The Rock- Dove is more or less gregarious at all seasons of the year, and 

 the colony is rarely entirely deserted. Birds are continually flying to and 

 from the feeding-grounds, and when the young are being reared it is a 

 pretty sight to see these birds leaving and entering their sea-girt homes. 

 In stormy weather they often keep close to their cave. The food of the 

 Rock-Dove resembles that of its congeners to a great extent. Like the 

 Ring-Dove, it eats an enormous amount of grain ; but it also eats many 

 seeds which are troublesome to the farmer. Its fare of grain and tender 

 shoots is varied in the summer by several kinds of land-shells ; and Saxby 

 states that during ten months of the year it chiefly subsists upon the roots 

 of the couch-grass and the seeds of various kinds of weeds. The Rock- 

 Dove drinks very often ; and it has been known to settle on the water for 

 this purpose, where the banks of the river were too steep to allow it to 

 alight. 



The Rock-Dove is a very early breeder, its eggs being often laid by the 

 middle of March ; and as it rears two, if not three or four, broods in 

 a season, fresh eggs may be obtained from that month till August or Sep- 

 tember. April and May is the great breeding-time. It is very probably 

 a life-paired bird, and will nest year after year in one particular spot if 

 not molested. A few Rock-Doves build their nests in the crevices of the 

 cliffs; but the great majority resort to caves for breeding-purposes. These 

 caves are sometimes dry, sometimes the floor is dry at low water; but in 

 many cases the sea is ever rolling inwards, dashing the spray far up the 



