The nest consists of a few dead leaves huddled together in some hollow in the ground, among the heath, long grass, or fern; it is frequently found at the foot of a furze or other bush. The eggs, two or three in number, are of a perfect oval shape, beautifully clouded and streaked with grey and light brown on a white ground; they are laid in the beginning of July, in about the middle of which month the young are generally hatched.
RING DOVE.
RINGED DOVE, OR CUSHAT. QUEEST, OR CUSHIE. WOOD PIGEON.
FIGURE 20.
Of the Columbine birds, or Doves, we have in this country four distinct species, three of which are permanent residents, and one a summer migrant. There is also a member of the family, although classed in a different genus, of which a few specimens have been taken in this country, namely, the Passenger Pigeon of North America. All these are extremely beautiful birds, and general favourites on that account, as well as for their pleasing habits and manners, which have mainly contributed to make the name of the Dove synonymous with all that is gentle, and peaceable, and loveable. It was a Dove, we may remember, which first gave to Noah assurance that the waters had subsided from the earth, by returning to the ark with an olive leaf in its beak, since which, both bird and plant have ever been emblematical of peace; and it is under the mystic semblance of a Dove, that we find the Holy Spirit personated in Scripture.
The particular species above named is termed by most naturalists Columba palumbus, the first term meaning a Dove or Pigeon, and the second a "Wood Pigeon," which, in this country, is its most common appellation, although it is also frequently called the Ring Dove, or Cushat. This truly elegant bird occurs throughout the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, frequenting most the cultivated and wooded districts, where it does a good deal of mischief by feeding upon the wheat, peas, barley, and other agricultural produce; it also partakes freely of beech-mast and acorns; it is graminivorous, that is, feeding on grass; as well as granivorous—feeding on grain. Its favourite resting-place is amid the thick branches of tall trees, especially beech, ash, and pine, in which most frequently its nest will be found; just a few twigs, loosely put together in a circular form; it is generally from sixteen to twenty feet from the ground.
The eggs are two in number, of a pure white colour, and of a roundish form. Three broods are sometimes produced in a season, the first of which is generally abroad by the beginning of May, and the second about the end of July. The period of incubation is sixteen or seventeen days.
All must be familiar with the soft coo coo of this shy bird; heard in the summer woodlands, it falls on the ear with a particularly soothing effect. In the winter it congregates in large flocks, the number of the permanent residents being then much increased by fresh arrivals from the continent; and very beautiful they look, flying about amid the snow, in their greyish blue plumage, ornamented with black and white, green and purple, and suffused on the breast with a reddish flush, as though the light of the setting sun were shining on them.
STOCK DOVE.
BLUE-BACKED OR WOOD DOVE.
FIGURE 21.
Columba ænas is the scientific name of this species. The first term, as you are aware, means simply a Dove, the etymology of the second is not so clear, most likely it comes from oinos—relating to wine, and alludes to the ruddy or vinous tinge of the breast. This is a somewhat stouter bird in the body than the last, and it wants the white patches which so vary and enliven the plumage of the Ring Dove, than which it is less elegant, although perhaps its plumage is more rich and splendid, with that shifting play of golden green and violet which all the Doves, and some other of the feathered tribes present. But for this, the plumage of our Stock Dove, (so called, it is said, because it is the original stock from which our common domestic Pigeons are derived,) would be considered plain and dull; it is chiefly greyish blue, deepening at parts into purple, and flushed here and there with deep red; the legs of this, as of most Doves and Pigeons, are light red, and the bill light brown or yellowish.
"The Stock Dove builds in the old oak wood,"
says Mary Howitt, in her beautiful song of the Pheasant, and so no doubt it often does; but more frequently, perhaps, in the fir plantation, or among the beeches, or any other trees that present a suitable nesting-place; a hole in the trunk is frequently chosen, it may be only four or five, or as many as forty or fifty feet from the ground. Sometimes the flat and shallow nest, just a few sticks loosely put together, is placed on the ground itself, in a deserted rabbit-burrow, or some other hollow place; beneath furze bushes it is occasionally found, and even in hedges and fruit trees near to woods and coppices.