TURTLE-DOVE. 413 



The Turtle-Dove has not arrived many days ere it seeks out a site for 

 its nestj and the eggs are usually laid in the latter half of May or early in 

 June. The nest is sometimes built in a tall dense hedge, sometimes in 

 an evergreen bush or in the branches of a pine-tree ; as a rule, however, 

 it is generally much nearer to the ground than that of the Ring-Dove, 

 sometimes within easy reach of the hand. It is usually a slight flat 

 structure made of slender twigs, but I have occasionally found it to be 

 more substantially made. The eggs are two in number, creamy white in 

 colour, like those of the Stock-Dove, and oval in form, both ends being 

 almost equally pointed; they vary in length from 1'25 to I'l inch, and 

 in breadth from "94 to '86 inch. The small size of the eggs of the Turtle- 

 Dove prevents them being confused with those of any other British species 

 of Pigeon. Both birds assist in the task of incubation, and in many 

 cases two broods are reared in the year. 



The food of the Turtle-Dove is chiefly composed of grain and small 

 seeds, but, doubtless, like its near allies the Pigeons, it varies this diet 

 with land-shells and fruit. Like the rest of the Pigeons, the Turtle-Dove 

 drinks frequently and regularly. It is said by some writers that it only 

 takes fresh water ; but Stevenson, in his ' Birds of Norfolk,' notices its 

 partiality for salt, and thinks that this is the reason why it occurs so 

 abundantly near the coast. Other Pigeons are known to prefer brackish 

 water to fresh. 



Like its cousins the Pigeons, the Turtle-Dove often flies far to feed, 

 and small parties of these birds, as well as of Stock-Doves, may be con- 

 stantly seen in spring on the Wallachian steppes ten miles or more from 

 a tree or even a bush. I have shot them on these prairies as late as the 

 38th of May. The flight of this bird is very powerful, and often accom- 

 panied with loud clashing together of the wings. On the ground it runs 

 among the earth clods with great ease, continually depressing its head 

 and contracting its neck. 



Dixon, when in Algeria, made the following notes on this bird : — " The 

 Turtle-Dove is very common in the oases, and by no means uncommon 

 on the wooded sides of the Aures, two or three thousand feet above sea- 

 level, in the evergreen-oak scrub. Although May had far advanced, I am 

 inclined to think that many of the birds we saw in the extreme south 

 were migrants, on their way northwards to JEurope. The birds were 

 gregarious in the oases, and were often in company with the Egyptian 

 Turtle-Dove. Almost every date-palm contained one or two of these 

 beautiful birds, and they seemed very fond of hiding themselves among 

 the thick foliage, rarely perching on the outside of the tree. They were 

 not at all shy, and seldom left their retreat before the report of a gun 

 drove them out. Numbers of these birds visited the almost dried-up river 

 to drink, usually in the early morning. They roosted in the date-palms. 



