RING DOVE. 



423 



sight, about eight or ten feet from the ground, and usually upon the 

 forks of an oak branch, without any apparent concern about protection 

 from above. On the contrary, the situation of most of these was pecu- 

 liarly unsheltered and exposed. The nest itself, again, is a very slight 

 structure, and still less calculated for warmth, or shelter; the hot na- 

 ture of the parent birds, according to Albertus Magnus, not requiring 

 this. It may, with the utmost propriety, be called a platform, being 

 composed of a flat pile of twigs, not artfully interwoven, as is stated in 

 some books, but laid crossways upon one another, in a rather loose man- 

 ner, though not without neatness and attention to symmetry, for when 

 completed, the structure is always very nearly circular. The largest 

 and longest twigs, chiefly those of birch, are laid as a foundation, the 

 size chosen becoming smaller as the work advances. It is mentioned 

 in books, that the eggs may be seen through the twigs from below ; 

 and in some instances, this may be so, though not in those nests which 

 I have found on exposed oak-boughs, in Darent Wood, which were 

 more than one inch thick. I have remarked, indeed, that they use 

 fewer materials when these are less wanted, as when the nest is, as I 

 have frequently seen it, on the flat branch of a spruce or silver fir, in 

 which case a very thin layer of fine twigs is constructed. 1 



There is a fable, a la JEsop, current in Suffolk, on this subject, 

 which may amuse the reader. The magpie, it is said, once undertook 

 to teach the pigeon how to build a more substantial and commodious 

 dwelling ; but instead of being a docile pupil, the pigeon kept on her 

 old cry of " Take two ! Taffy ! take two!" The magpie insisted that 

 this was a very unworkman-like manner of proceeding, one stick at a 

 time being as much as could be managed to advantage, but the pigeon 

 reiterated her " two, take two /" till mag, in a violent passion, gave up 

 the task, exclaiming, " I say that one at a time is enough ; and if you 

 think otherwise, you may set about the work yourself, for I will have 

 no more to do with it." Since that time the wood pigeon has built her 

 slight platform of sticks, which certainly suffers much in comparison 

 with the strong substantial structure of the magpie. Grahame says, 



" So rudely is it formed, 



That oft the simple boy, who counts the hours 



By blowing off the dandelion flowers, 



Mistakes the witch knot's for the cushat's nest." 2 * 



Their food is grain and seeds of all kinds. In the autumn they 



1 Architecture of Birds, p. 157. 



2 Birds of Scotland, p. 51. 



