•1 WOOD-PIGEON,
greens -offer considerably in winter when fund is Hun, Cabbage-plants are kbu attacked; 1 remarked
the birds feeding greedily on the li-nves about the end of June in the neighbourhood of Brighton in 1881.
On the extensive shingle-banks lying between S ho r chain Harbour and the coast-line luxuriant beds of
wild tares hate gradually binned ; hen1, towards the end of the summer, when the pods are ripe, numbers
of Pigi-ons are attracted to feast upon the seeds. During line weather a constant stream of birds may be
seen crossing and recrossiug the harbour from the woods on the downs, the flight being continued from
shortly after daylight till well on in the afternoon. Small parties frequently alight at the brackish pools
in the salt-water marshes and also on the shore itself; in all probability drink (of a saline nature) rather
than food is the object of their visits to such spots.
Though hut few attractions arc offered to this species on the barren moorlands of the Northern Highlands,
the more extensive glens, which usually contaiu a certain amount of timber, along the river-side, as
well as scattered plantations, afford ample shelter during the nesting-sea son to large numbers of Pigeons.
To the wild and wooded gorges in the valley or the Beauly many pairs resort, their nests being placed
for the most part in firs, though I met with one or two in the drooping moss-grown birches that overhang
the course of the river. In autumn, when shooting on the moors in the west of Perthshire, 1 frequently drove
out small parties of ten or a dozen Pigeons from the cover of the stunted birch bushes that fringe the
mountain-burns at a considerable elevation on the hill-sides; little if any inducement (except the berries
of some hardy plant) could be found to account for the presence of the birds iu such remote and desolate
It is probable that Wood-Pigeons arrive on our north-east coasts iu considerable numbers during autumn
and early winter from across the North Sea. Early in November 18(13 I remarked on two occasions largo
flights that had apparently only recently made the land, worn and weary by the length of their journey,
fluttering along the links and about the fir-plan tat ions on the sea-coast near North Berwick in East Lothian.
Doubtless also migrants occasionally make the land along the whole of our eastern coasts, l l j notes for 1872,
while shooting in the east of Norfolk, contain the following lines s—
"NOT. 27. Heavy gale of wind from south-west. Scarcely possible to work punts on the Open brand)
being almost swamped by the spray. Pigeons and Eieldfan's in immense numbers continued flying west
during the greater part of the day ; with the last of the light they were still passing over."
As the Pigeons were in company with Fieldfares and holding the same course, it may reasonably be
supposed that both species had only recently arrived from the north of Europe.
The scanty collection of sticks prepared by the Wood-Pigeon for the accommodation of its anticipated
brood is too well known to need description. As a rule, iu Sussex, the ne-ts are placed in fir, beech, or
oilier forest-timber at a considerable eh ration ; occasionally, however, I have noticed them at the height of
only six, eight, or ten feet in thorn bushes or stunted beech trees in the valleys on the South Downs. Their
familiarity during the breeding-season has been referred to by most ornithological writers; for nesting-purposes
these binls frequently resort to the immediate vicinity of houses. In the neighbourhood of Brighton I have
repeatedly watched the female sitting on her nest on the limb of a Scotch lir, stretching immediately orcr a
highroad, utterly regardless of the constant traffic.
STOCK-DO V E.
COLUMBA (ENAS.
THE Stock-Dove is exceedingly common in some of the southern and eastern counties of England,
becoming less abundant towards the north, and appearing tu be but little known iu the north. Flocks
numbering from twenty up to fifty, and even more, may often be seen landing in the fields in the
neighbourhood of Shoreham, near Brighton; many pairs also breed in Staniner Park. In 1870 I found
them exceedingly common on the Potter lleigham marshes iu the cast of Norfolk, being attracted to
the locality by tho newly sown fields of peas. But few came under my notice while residing in East
Lothian, though in the beautifully wooded glen through which the Beauly runs near Eilean AlgSt,
and again in the valley of the Dhruim, I recognized several pairs. When seen from the hill-side
above, as they skimmed up and down the course of the river, or perched on the moss-grown drooping
birches, the contrast between this bird and the Wuod-I'igeou, both species being within view in the
same tree, was very marked, and at once attracted my attention, as I hod been formerly led to believe
that Stock-Doves were not residents in this part of the country.
This species is by no means fastidious when choosing its nesting-quarters, almost any site on
which eggs might be laid appearing to be adapted to its requirements. I did not get much chance
for observation, or make a search for their breeding-places, in cither Norfolk or Inverness, lint met with
many opportunities for ascertaining their habits in Sussex within a few miles of Brighton. In May-
I s " ! , a keeper pointed out a nest in Staumcr Park un a small limb near the top of a spruce fir, at
the height or about 20 feet from the ground. This structure, which was somewhat more carefully put
together than that of tho Wood-Pigeon, contained two young birds; in order to reach them, as I was
then iu need of specimens at this age, it was deemed expedient to make use of a ladder, the upper
portion of the tree being too weak to admit of climbing. When taken, it was discovered that the
youngsters were not sufficiently advanced for preservation, and it was necessary to rear ihem for a
weak longer; on a diet of green peas, however, they thrived rapidly, and soon acquired the desired
condition or plumage. Hi the targe elms in the same park there were also several birds sitting on eggs
In the hollows formed where the stems had rotted away ; in most instances no attempt had been made
to form a nest, the soft dust of the decaying wood probably affording a sufficiently luxurious accommodation.
The rabbit-burrows in the chalky soil on the slopes of the South Downs were also resorted to, and I
noticed several pairs breeding iu the face of the cliffs in the chalk-pits at Heeding and Offham. While
iu quest of the young of a Tawny Owl iu a large wood adjoining Balcornha Forest, we alighted on a
brood of juvenile Stock-Doves in a squirrel's drey on the limbs of an antiquated oak standing in a
dense thicket.