RINGDOVE. ROCK DOVE. 121 



which they frequent with almost preternatural attributes. 

 Having succeeded in selecting and winning a partner " to 

 honour and obey," the ringdove selects a suitable situation 

 for building, although few places come amiss, as their nests 

 are found within a few feet from the ground in a stunted 

 blackthorn, or some thirty feet high on the branches of the 

 fir-tree. 



The nest is a flat, plate -like structure, formed of twigs 

 rudely woven together in a circular form, without any raised 

 margin to prevent the young from falling out. The eggs are 

 usually two in number, in colour pure white, and glossy in 

 appearance. Two broods are reared during the season, the 

 first seldom coming to maturity, from the exposed situation in 

 which they build. 



The love-note of the woodquest has, in the northern parts 

 of Europe, been made the subject of a well- adapted and beau- 

 tiful myth. It is said that a dove perched in the neighbour- 

 hood of the holy cross when the Redeemer was expiring, 

 and, wailing its notes of sorrow, kept repeating the words, 

 u Kyrie ! Kyrie !" to alleviate the agony of His dying mo- 

 ments. 



Some idea of the occurrence of this beautiful species about 

 Dublin may be formed from the fact, that we have observed 

 twenty-seven occupied nests in a demesne not many miles 

 distant from the metropolis. 



Indigenous. 



SPECIES 115 THE ROCK DOVE. 



Columba lima. Linn. 



Columbe biset. Temm. 



Sea Pigeon. Rock Pigeon. 



THIS species, very local in its distribution, is as beautifully 

 marked as the preceding, and to it we must look for the ori- 

 ginal of our domestic pigeon. Widely differing in habits 

 from the ringdove, which is only found inland, we might cha- 

 racterize the rock dove as the pigeon of the sea, from its fre- 

 quenting those precipices which overhang the ocean around 

 the coast ; and although sometimes seen feeding in small flocks 

 in the stubble and turnip fields, yet we observe them more 

 constantly flying backwards and forwards between those huge 

 giants of stone which defend our coasts. 



Rarely occurring about Dublin, we have only observed a 

 few pair breeding at Lambay, or occasionally a stray wan- 



