196 STOCK DOVE. 



out. It consists simply of a few sticks placed across 

 each other in some thick tree or bush ; so thin is it 

 that the eggs can often be seen through the nest from 

 underneath. It is placed at various heights from the 

 ground, and usually commenced in March or April. 

 Sometimes it is built on an old squirrel's drey or an 

 old Magpie's or Sparrow Hawk's nest. Both birds 

 take their share of sitting. 



The eggs are invariably very oval in shape and purely 

 white. Two or three broods are reared in the season, 

 two eggs being laid each time. Last year two young 

 Pigeons were hatched in a tree by the Queenwood 

 gates on the 7th of November, evidently a third, or 

 perhaps fourth, brood. 



The Wood Pigeon becomes very sociable when 

 tamed, but it is almost impossible to rear it in a cage. 

 Slate grey shot with pinkish blue is the prevalent 

 colour of the upper parts of the Ring Dove ; there is 

 a cluster of white feathers on each side of the neck ; 

 the wings are dark brown, each feather being margined 

 with white ; tail dark brown ; breast pink, shading into 

 grey lower down. 



Ruskin, in speaking of the plumage of the Dove in 

 one of his Oxford Lectures, says : " When watched 

 carefully in the sunshine, it is the most exquisite, in 

 the modesty of its light, and in the myriad mingling of 

 its hue, of all plumage ". 



STOCK DOVE. 



COLUMBA /ENAS. 

 Family COLUMBID^. Genus COLUMBA. 



The Stock Dove is much less common than the 

 preceding, though probably often confounded with it 



