176 
NATURE NOTES 
These birds are not remarkable for intelligence, and, indeed, 
doves and pigeons generally are in this respect far behind several 
other families of birds — the crows, finches and parrots in parti- 
cular. But they have a curious liking for human companionship, 
which shows itself in various ways. If a person who feeds and 
tends them happens to be engaged in any gardening, carpentering, 
or other kind of work, one or two of the doves will often come 
and sit close by, or walk quietly about his feet. 
A few years ago one of these birds was struck at and seized 
by a female sparrow-hawk. My brother, who was indoors at 
the time, witnessed this attack from the window, and running 
out, was just in time to make the hawk drop her quarry. She 
then made another dash at the dove, and began to make off with 
it in her claws, but he managed in the end to rescue it. It was 
a good deal injured. On another occasion some rooks were 
soaring and wheeling at so great a height as to appear as mere 
specks against the blue of the sky. One of the doves feeding 
close to me on the ground turned her head over to one side (as 
birds usually do when desirous of looking at a distant object 
directly above them), and seeing what she evidently took to be 
birds of prey of some kind, flew up at once into a thick Scots 
fir tree. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Oology. — Your correspondent, “ F. W. L.,” in his useful hints on the above 
subject, advocates the taking of a single egg from a nest, on the ground that “ it is 
cruel to take more.” The greatest value of a collection of eggs is undoubtedly 
the intimacy with the details of bird life and habits gained at first hand by the 
collector, but if we are to collect on “scientific lines” we must not lose sight of 
the more strictly scientific object — the study of varying types of form and colour- 
ing, and the principles which govern them. The first purpose only is served by 
the single-egg collection, as by the cardboard and gum method of earlier days. 
To secure a lasting value to a collection it seems to me necessary to take complete 
clutches. An obvious case in point would be a series of cuckoo’s eggs, which 
would be valueless unless the other eggs from each clutch were shown. At first 
sight it certainly seems more cruel to take a whole clutch than to deprive a bird of 
one or two eggs only. But I do not wish to ple.ad “science” as an excuse for 
cruelty, as is sometimes done. For I believe there is much to be said in favour of 
taking “all or none” of a clutch. With some birds which only lay two eggs, 
such as the nightjar or stone curlew, it is certainly a false kindness to leave one 
egg and so prevent the bird laying a second full clutch. And I think the same 
holds good with other birds; it is better that they should bring up their full 
number of young a few weeks later than a smaller number at their usual time. 
There is also the risk of desertion to be considered when some eggs are taken. A 
clutch found late in the season should of course be left, as another clutch would not 
be laid, or the brood might be too weak for migration. Again, if a whole normal 
clutch is once taken, that type is represented in the collection, and tio mote nests of 
that species need ever be disturbed, unless the eggs present some special character- 
istics. I confess to many a qualm as one by one I have packed away the contents 
of some snug little nest, but the reward comes when the nest of the same species 
Blaxhall, Suffolk. 
G. J. Rope. 
