BIRDS IN CORNISH VILLAGE 303 



spicuous and open to attack. Then again the win- 

 ter immigration of wood-pigeons from northern 

 Europe appears to be on the increase, and it may 

 be conjectured that a considerable number of 

 these visitors remain annually to breed with us. 

 There has also been an increase in the stock- 

 dove and turtle-dove in recent years, and the 

 former species is extending its range in the north. 

 The cause or causes of the increase of the turtle- 

 dove are not far to seek. Its chief feathered 

 enemies, the egg and fledgling robbers, are the 

 same as the wood-pigeon's; moreover, the turtle- 

 dove is least persecuted by man of our four 

 pigeons, and being strictly migratory it quits the 

 country before shooting-time begins; add to this 

 that the turtle-dove has been specially protected 

 under Sir Herbert Maxwell's Act of 1894 in a 

 good number of English counties, from Surrey to 

 Yorkshire. 



Of the stock-dove we can only say that, like 

 the ring-dove, it has increased in spite of the 

 persecution it is subject to, since no person out 

 after pigeons would spare it because it is without 

 a white collar. With the exception of the county 

 of Buckinghamshire it is not on the schedule any- 



