PIGEONS AND DOVES. 179 



times, however, it will nest in company with Rock- 

 Doves in rocky caverns by the sea, or in the head of 

 a pollard willow, or even in a rabbit-burrow. It is 

 of a more solitary habit than the Ring-Dove, though 

 in the winter it associates with them to feed in 

 the fields, its feeding habits differing little from 

 thosft of the larger bird. It is the least distinctively 

 marked of the Pigeons, and is most easily to be 

 identified by its negative characteristics. Thus, it 

 has not the white patches that appear at the sides 

 of the hind-neck and on the wings of the Ring-Dove, 

 and it lacks the white lower back and black double 

 wing-bar of the Rock-Dove. 



ROCK-DOVE.— 13 inches. Gray above, with a 

 greenish sheen on neck and chest; lower back 

 white ; tail slaty-blue, barred broadly with black 

 at the end ; a black double croas-bar on each wing ; 

 under parts gray ; bill dusky ; feet red. Resident. 



Eggs.— 2, rounded, white, glossed ; 1-5 x 1-15 inch. 



Nest. — Slightly built of twigs, and placed on ledges 

 in clifF-caverns. 



Distribution. — In England chiefly, though very 

 locally, along the west coast, appearing on the east 

 coast at Flamborough Head and in Northumberland ; 

 Scotland, and the Orkneys and Shetlands ; in Ireland 

 fair'ly general. 



The Rock-Dove breeds in caverns in rocky cliffs. 

 Being commonly domesticated, the Rock-Pigeon can 



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