145 



THE TURTLE-DOVE. 



Turtur co'mmunis, Selby. 



The Turtle-Dove appears to have entered the country mainly 

 on the south-eastern portion o£ the coast between Suffolk 

 and Hampshire. The earliest arrival recorded M^as in Berk- 

 shire, where a single bird was observed on the 13th o£ April, 

 and on the following day two were seen in Staffordshire. 

 With the exception of these latter and of a record from 

 Shropshire on the 2nd of May, the birds that arrived in the 

 south-east up to the end of the first week in May penetrated 

 no further west than the home and east-coastal counties, 

 except in the south where stragglers reached Dorset^ Wilt- 

 shire, Somerset and Grloucester. By the 1st of May one of 

 these early arrivals had already laid in Essex. The main 

 body of our summer-residents appears to have arrived 

 between the 4th and the 15th of May, but even then the 

 range of the species was but slowly extended north and west. 

 The principal increases up to the latter date were recorded 

 in the area already occupied, the birds reported beyond it 

 being hardly more than stragglers. It was not until after 

 the 15th that the immigrants began to push westward in 

 numbers, and with the advent of further arrivals during the 

 latter half of the month the remaining areas of the Turtle- 

 Dove's range were quickly filled up. Immigration was con- 

 tinued on the east coast right up to the end of May and even 

 on the 1st of June a bird was taken at a lightship off the 

 Suffolk coast. It is interesting to note that on the same date 

 a straggler occurred so far out of its normal range as the Isle 

 of May (Fife). As has been mentioned above a nest with 

 one egg was found in Essex on the 1st of May, but breeding 

 did not begin to become general until the middle of the 



