328 Habits of the Ringdove, 



fond of looking out of a window, and gazing with com- 

 placency on the passers by; whence the child's puzzle of, 

 what is most like a cat looking out of a window ? but a cat 

 looking in. 



The favourite and most usual transformation of witches 

 was into a cat : and as all old or deformed women, particu- 

 larly single or solitary ones, were suspected for witches, old 

 maids are still called cats or tabbies. 



(^To be continued.^ 



Art. IV. A Description of the Habits of the Ringdove, 

 By Charles Waterton, Esq. 



The supposed purity of the dove is a common topic with 

 many writers ; and their readers are apt to imagine that this 

 bird has been more favoured by nature than the rest of the 

 feathered tribe. What may be allowed to romantic and sen- 

 timental composers cannot by any means be conceded to 

 writers on natural history. Genuine ornithology would be 

 offended at the attempt to introduce unwarrantable matter 

 into her pages ; while her true votaries would always grieve 

 on seeing it admitted into them. 



All wild birds which go in pairs are invariably attached to 

 each other by Nature's strongest ties ; and they can expe- 

 rience no feelings of what maybe called mistrust or suspicions 

 of unfaithfulness : otherwise we should witness scenes of 

 ornithological assault and battery in every hedge and wood, 

 during the entire process of their incubation. The soot- 

 black crow is just as chaste, affectionate, and constant as the 

 snow-white dove itself. The movements of both these birds, 

 at a certain time of the year, tend exactly to the same mark. 

 They are inherent and unalterable in them, and, of course, 

 are not to be repressed or changed. At the interesting period 

 of incubation. Nature knows no distinction betwixt the cooing 

 of the dove and the cackling of the goose. Both sounds ex- 

 press the same emotions, and are perfectly understood by the 

 parties. They have only one plain and obvious meaning. 

 Audubon's description of his lovesick turtle-dove, which 

 listened with delight to her mate's " assurances of devoted 

 affection," and was " still coy and undetermined, and seemed 

 fearful of the truth of her lover," and, " virgin-like, resolved 

 to put his sincerity to the test," is lovesome nonsense, as far 

 as regards the feathered tribe ; and is a burlesque upon the 



