RING DOVE. 
271 
BA SORES. 
COLUMBIDjE. 
RING DOVE, 
WOOD PIGEON, CUSHAT. 
COLUMBA PALUMBUS. 
PLATE LXVII. FIG. I. 
The Wood Pigeon begins to build early in April, and 
is then to be met with breeding in almost every wood and 
plantation throughout the country; and though, in some 
instances, it retains much of that shyness which charac¬ 
terized it during the winter, and does not generally allow 
you to come near it on the nest, it is sometimes much 
more familiar, building its nest in pleasure-grounds in the 
immediate vicinity of the house. At Seaton Burn, near 
Newcastle, these welcome and delightful visitors may be 
seen from the windows of the house, whilst sitting on 
their eggs; and, in one instance, I observed a nest, which 
was placed in a single thorn-bush within a few yards of 
the gardener's cottage, where children were playing round 
it all day long; and, what is still more unusual, a pair 
reared their young ones during the last summer, in ivy 
against the house, close under one of the bed-room 
windows. 
The Ring Dove builds a nest so slight, that it is a mat¬ 
ter of surprise that it is not blown out of the tree, or the 
eggs out of it. It is formed of dry sticks crossing each 
other, and is without any cement or lining whatever; it is 
a level platform, with little or no concavity, and has very 
