A dovecot is a small house built for doves or pigeons to live in. On an old farm it might be a wooden box on a pole, or a round stone tower with little holes the birds fly in and out of. People once kept the birds for eggs, meat, or messages; though actually, a lot of the dovecots you see now are leftover buildings in a garden, kept because they look pretty, not because anyone still farms the birds. The same building is very often spelled dovecote, with an e — that is the spelling most books use. It is a quiet, old-fashioned word; you meet it in the country and in history, not in city chat.