xviii. 



COLUMBA P ALUM BUS. (lixn.) 

 Wood Pigeon, Cushat, Rixg Dove. 



The Wood Pigeon begins to build early in April, and is 

 then dispersed throughout the country, breeding in almost 

 every wood and plantation, and, though it retains much of 

 that shyness which characterises it when in flocks during the 

 winter, and does not usually allow you to come near it on the 

 nest, yet it is sometimes far more familiar, building in plea- 

 sure grounds in the immediate vicinity of the house. At 

 Seaton Burn, near Newcastle, these welcome and delightful 

 visitors may be seen from the windows whilst sitting on their 

 eggs ; and, in one instance, I observed one which had fixed 

 its abode in a lone thorn bush, within about ten yards of the 

 gardener's cottage, where children were playing all day ; and, 

 what is still more remarkable, a pair reared their young ones, 

 during the last summer, in ivy against the house, close under 

 one of the lodging-room windows. 



It builds a nest so slight, that it is a matter of surprise that 

 it is not blown out of the tree, or the eggs out of it ; it is 

 formed of dry sticks, crossing each other, and without any 

 cement or lining whatever, it has very little the appearance 

 of a bird's nest, being nearly level, and having very little con- 

 cavity, it is so loosely put together, and so slight, that I have 

 in many instances seen the eggs through from below. 



The Ring Dove seems to prefer the branches of the oak 

 and fir, as being more horizontal and better suited to the 

 flatness of its nest, which is found also in thorns and in ivy 

 growing against trees. It has two or three broods in the 

 year, and lays invariably two eggs, of a glossy white, and 

 usually of a perfect oval. I have known young ones in the 

 nest as late as the middle of September. — Plate XVIII., 

 Figure 1. 



