666 Birds. 



recently, I have always lived in a country abounding with wood, 

 and divided by hedgerows containing an unlimited number of pollard 

 trees intermixed with the others. The ringdoves inhabit the woods 

 in late autumn and winter, in large flocks, which, at the approach of 

 the breeding season, break up into separate pairs, and furnish tenants 

 to trees in half the hedgerows in the country ; often to the gardens. 

 Now, in a country of this kind, they might suit themselves : if they 

 preferred the wood, there it was; if a pollard tree or a thick bush in a 

 hedge, they needed not go far for it. But if a country or district af- 

 ford no such choice, — why then they must perforce be contented with 

 what they can get; and on the principle of "If we can't do as we like 

 we must do as we can ; " or this, " Any port in a storm ; " — breed in 

 the woods or plantations if there be no hedgerows with " charming " 

 trees for their nuptial abode in them. This is very much the case in 

 those parts of Norfolk to which I have already referred. To a great 

 degree it is the case here ; and yet even here, where a pollard is un- 

 known, and a tree of thirty years old, out of a plantation — save in the 

 vicinity of some gentleman's residence — is a singular rarity, they do 

 not confine themselves to the plantations to breed. I have found 

 their nests in the shrubs of the garden, in a thom-hedge overhanging 

 a path, in a thorn-bush quite close to a plantation, &c. &c. On the 

 whole, then, I conclude that Mr. Rennie might have suffered Mon- 

 tagu's statement on the subject of the ringdove's nesting-places, to 

 stand uncontradicted by the quotation I have given above ; a quota- 

 tion, too, from his (the Professor's) own book, — ' The Architecture of 

 Birds.' 



It is a common belief in Essex, that if you touch, still more, if you 

 breathe on, the ringdove's eggs, she will forsake them. It is, how- 

 ever, totally without foundation : for I remember, when a school-boy, 

 testing its truth, — I being much inclined to scepticism on the sub- 

 ject—by putting the eggs into my mouth and then replacing them. 

 I need hardly say she covered them again. I have seen it somewhere 

 stated that this bird occasionally lays three eggs : I have never met 

 with an instance of the kind. Sometimes, though very rarely, I have 

 found a nest with but one egg in it. The young, when discovered in 

 the nest, often attempt, as it would seem, to frighten the intruder, by 

 swelling up their neck, and making a sort of half puff half hissing 

 sound. These gestures and sounds have been known to frighten 

 away a domestic pigeon, under which a pair of ringdove's eggs had 

 been substituted for her own. She was so alarmed, it is supposed, by 

 their uncouth gestures and sounds, that she left them to starve. And 



