a simple platform of a few twigs, and is, to my know- 
ledge, frequently completed in two days: the favourite 
sites in the locality with which I am best acquainted are 
our old whitethorn trees and willows, but the nest may 
be often found in fir-plantations, hazel-copse, and other 
places, generally well concealed, and at no great height 
from the ground, though there are occasional exceptions 
to both of these rules. he flight of this bird is rapid 
and extremely graceful, and in “twisting” when pur- 
sued by a bird of prey, the Turtle Dove is at least equal 
to what Dove-slayers call the ‘ Blue-Rock.” The food 
of this Dove consists of seeds of many kinds and the 
leaves of clover and vetches ; turnip-seed is, I think, 
its favourite diet, it will also devour the berries of the 
mountain-ash, 
These birds generally leave us before the middle of 
September, and sometimes congregate to a certain 
extent before their departure. In all parts of the 
Mediterranean coasts with which I am acquainted the 
Turtle Dove is a very common summer migrant, but I 
never met with it anywhere in such abundance as in 
Cyprus, during the month of May. A great many of 
this species have come aboard of my yacht in the 
Mediterranean in stiff breezes at various times during 
their vernal migrations, and I have seen more than one 
fall exhausted into the sea, after flying about us for some 
time, apparently afraid to alight. In Spain the passage 
of the Turtle Dove is awaited and attended upon by 
native sportsmen with nearly as much eagerness as that 
of the Quail, and in the neighbourhood of Seville a very 
great number are annually killed in spring by persons 
