THE BIRD-LIFE OF LONDON 



or in pairs about the tall trees, from which its note of 

 coo-oo-up may very frequently be heard during the whole 

 spring and summer. It has the same habit of returning 

 regularly to certain places to roost in big evergreens, or 

 tall trees covered with ivy. Like its congeners it obtains 

 most of its food on the fields, running or walking about 

 the ground in a waddling manner, seldom permitting 

 close approach, and when alarmed taking cover in the 

 trees. This food consists of grain and seeds of many 

 kinds, acorns, beech-mast, and berries. The bird is some- 

 what troublesome to the farmer and market-gardener, 

 its inroads amongst crops of beans, peas, and newly sown 

 seeds often being serious. As a set-off against this the 

 Stock Dove consumes large quantities of the seeds of 

 noxious weeds, charlock in particular. In autumn it 

 often associates with Ring Doves, but never seems to 

 gather into large flocks like that species, although its 

 gatherings are often considerable. To some extent the 

 Stock Dove is social during the breeding season, which 

 commences in April and is often prolonged into the 

 autumn, brood after brood being reared in succession. 

 A hole in a tree or cliff is perhaps the most favourite 

 nesting-place, a pollard trunk often being selected ; 

 rabbit-holes and dense masses of ivy on trees and buildings 

 are less frequently chosen. The nest is slight, a mere 

 mat of twigs or straws, and in some cases is dispensed with 

 entirely. The two eggs are creamy white. The nest- 

 lings remain in their abode until able to fly, when they 

 betake themselves to the open fields. 



The adult Stock Dove has the general colour of the 

 upper parts brownish grey, brightest on the back and 

 upper tail-coverts ; the wings are blackish brown, bluish 

 grey on the coverts, and grey on the scapulars ; there are 

 dark brown patches on some of the coverts and inner- 

 most secondaries, forming a broken bar across the wing ; 

 the tail is bluish grey on the basal portion, merging into a 

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