inoi-:oNS, DOVHs, and sand-ckoush. 71 



quarter of a century earlier. Why do we not extend 

 them? Here in Shanj^hai I have often seen wild birds fed 

 with "crumbs from the rich man's table," the charm of the 

 sight repaying a million times over the little trouble given. 

 For at one and the same moment I have seen rooks, magpies, 

 bulbuls, tits, spai'rows, blackbirds, and doves feeding away to 

 their own great delight and that of the spreader of the feast. 



Biblical references to doves are also references to love, 

 gentleness, harmlessness, and the like. Mendelssohn's aria, 

 "O for the wings of a dove" is perhaps one of the most 

 marvellously beautiful songs ever written, and easily worth 

 ten thousand volumes of the meretricious stuff which goes by 

 the nameof music to-day. Gentleness is indeed a characteristic 

 of the dove family. Seen alongside the selfish assertiveness 

 of the blackbird, the grasping tendencies of the rook and the 

 wiliness of the magpie, the modest retiring nature of the dove 

 appears in sharp and pleasing contrast. The most in the way 

 of violence I have ever seen a dove do is to make a semi-threat- 

 ening rush at another of his kind, which the attacked one 

 avoids by getting out of the way for a yard or two. His 

 courting of his mate is a most amusing combination of defer- 

 enceand love. He bows again and again, he coos, and coos, he 

 puffs out his feathers to show off to best advantage that pretty 

 speckled black and white tippet he wears,and which corresponds 

 with the "ring"' of the ring-dove. At times he feels impelled 

 to do something more to show the strength of his passion. 

 Then one sees him winnowing his way up by a beautifully 

 curved ascent into the air to the height of a hundred feet or 

 so, from which in a similar curve he free-wheels down on 

 wide-spread wing to the branch on which she sits. Soon, of 

 course, building operations commence. These are very rudi- 

 mentary. Young doves are, evidently, most amenable to 

 advice, and when Mater Columba says, "Now sit still, or 

 you'll fall off," (it isn't a matter of falling out), baby Columba 

 very quietly obeys. I have watched the whole operation 

 during the breeding season this year, the nest being close to 

 a path along which many hundreds of people passed every- 

 day, none of them apparently, except myself, ever dreaming 

 that egg-laying, incubation, and rearing of young were going 

 on so near. The nest was on the side of a small tree trunk 

 away from the path, and before it was finished the leaves of 

 our common house-creeper hid it so completely that the casual 

 glances I could give never solved the question whether there 

 were one or two young ones. There are never more than two. 



Tiirtiir Riipicola is almost exactly a reproduction of what 

 we know as the turtle dove at home There are barred 

 markings on the back and wings which differentiate it from 

 the Chinese turtle dove we know so well. My own experience 



