143 



Great numbers still take up their summer 

 residence on the Fern Islands. The sketch from 

 which the case is copied was taken at one of their 

 colonies close to the old lighthouse in the centre of 

 the group. 



I have seen these birds nesting in the oat 

 fields in the neighbourhood of some of the Scotch 

 firths on the north-east coast of Scotland. 



The specimens in the case were shot on the 

 shores of the Dornoch Firth near Tain in June, 

 1869. The eggs were obtained at the Fern Islands 

 in June, 1867. 



STOCK DOVE. 

 Case 204. 



The Stock Dove is common in the south of 

 England, and I have repeatedly observed them in 

 large flocks in the east of Norfolk feeding on the 

 pea-fields during the summer months. 



They appear to breed in a variety of situations, 

 holes in old timber being, as most authors state, 

 their favourite nesting-place ; they, however, 

 occasionally rear their young on the branches of a 

 tree like the King Dove, at times in a rabbit- 

 burrow, and also in the face of a cliff. 



The young birds (or squabs, as I believe 

 juveniles of the Pigeon tribe ought properly to be 

 termed) were taken from a nest in every respect 

 resembling that of a Wood Pigeon, near the top of 

 a small spruce fir tree of about thirty feet in height 

 in the neighbourhood of Brighton in June, 1874 ; 

 the male and female being shot in the Potter 

 Heigham marshes in the east of Norfolk a year 

 later. 



The case is copied from a Stock Dove's nest 

 in an elm tree at Falmer near Brighton. 



