WOOD PIGEON. 41 



that the eggs may be seen through the bottom of it from the 

 foot of the tree. As soon as the nest is completed, the fe- 

 male deposits her two white eggs thereon, and in eighteen 

 days the young are produced, after the male and female birds 

 have jointly sat on them by regular turns ; it being a curious 

 fact, that the male bird sits upon the eggs regularly from 

 nine or ten o'clock in the morning, until three or four in the 

 afternoon. The nestlings have their eyes closed, for the first 

 nine days after they are hatched, with a film through which 

 the pupil of the eye may be plainly seen. Their beaks are 

 very thick and shapeless at the base, and the legs and feet 

 are of a dirty yellow colour Their bodies are flesh-coloured, 

 and are thickly covered with pale yellow down. 



The adult Wood Pigeon measures seventeen inches in 

 length, from the tip of the beak to the extremity of the tail. 

 The colour of the beak is carmine-red at the base and nostril, 

 powdered over with a whitish dust : the middle is rich ochre- 

 yellow, and the tip lemon-yellow. The iris is sulphur-yellow. 

 The legs are feathered half way down the tarsi, the lower 

 portions or naked parts and the toes being covered with blood- 

 red scales, which scales appear as though they were let in 

 with putty or pale yellow clay : the claws are brown horn- 

 coloured. The head, neck, and all the upper parts of the 

 Wood Pigeon are of a blueish-grey colour, lightest about the 

 throat and thighs : the belly is pure white. On the sides of 

 the neck these birds have scale-like feathers, which reflect 

 various tints from emerald-green to a purple lilac ; and in the 

 midst of these feathers there are twelve or fourteen others of 

 a pure white, the whole forming a crescent-shaped band. The 

 quills are dusky towards their tips, but their shafts and outer 

 webs are milk-white when the wings are closed : the quill- 

 feathers separately have a large white space about the middle, 

 over shaft and all, and partake most of the grey colour of 

 the back towards the root of each feather, and are dusky 



