386 lUE I'EATllKllED llllBtS. 



Cl'HE TX:KTIE-D0\E.* 



Ill the mule, the head and nape are of a villous ash ; on tlic sides of the neck there is a 

 space comijosod of black feathers, terminated with white ; the front of the neck, breast, 

 and upper part of the belly, light viuous ; the back brown-ash ; the border of the wings 

 bluish-ash ; the other coverts rusty with a black spot at tho centre of the feathers ; the 

 abdomen and lower parts of the tail jiure white. The tail-feathers are blackish-ash ; all, 

 with the exception of the two intermediate ones, terminated with white ; the lateral 

 feather is white externally ; the spaces round the ej'es and the feet are red ; the iris is a 

 vcllowish-red. The length of the bird is about eleven inches and a half. 



The female has not the white front, nor the colour of the wings so bright ; her (juills 

 are brownish, whereas they are blackish in the males. 



Bechstein states that these birds arc found throughout tlie t2inpcrate parts -of Europe 

 and Asia, and also in many of the South 8ca Islands. lie saj^s that they do not arrive 

 in the woods of Germany till the end of April or the beginning of May, and that they 

 visit Greece lauch earlier, generally coming during the month of April, in four or five 

 vast flocks. They have been seen in Asia Slinor and Smyrna ; and Temminck informs 

 us that they are found high up in the north, but not in the regions of the Arctic circle. 



" Deep in the wood, thy voice I list, and love 

 Tliy soft complaining song— thy tender cooing ; 

 O, what a winning way thou hast of Avooing ! 

 Gentlest of all thy race — sweet tnitle-dovc. 

 Thine is a note that doth not pass away, 

 Like the light music of a summer's day. 

 The merle may tiill his richest song in vain — 

 Scarce do we say, ' List, for he pipes again,' — 

 But thou ! that low plaint oft and oft repeating 

 To the coy-mate that needs so much entreating, 

 Fillest the woods with a discursive song 

 Of love, that sinkcth deep and resteth long, 

 Hushing the voice of mirth and staying folly, 

 And waking in the heart a gentle melancholy." j 



Frequenting woods, fir plantations, and high thick hedges dividing arable land, these 

 birds make a thin, almost transparent, platform nest, eight or ten foot above the ground, 

 in the forked branch of an oak or fir-tree, or near the top of a thick and tall bush. Upon 

 this nest the female deposits two eggs about the middle of June. The eggs arc white 

 and rather pointed at the end. The parent-birds sit by turns, the male also occasionally 

 luedmg his mate during incubation, and both afterwards mutually labouring for the 

 support of the j'oung. 



In England they are considered i]s producing but one brood in (he season, but in 

 France tlicso birds arc known to have a second pair of j'ouiig. Their food is grain, par- 

 ticularly wheat ; and they are constant visitors to the wheat-field while the corn is young, 

 and to pca-ficlds ; tlicy also feed on rape and other small .seeds. " In tlie autumn," says 

 Mr. Yarrell, " tliey fiy iu small parlies of ten or twelve birds, and leave iMigland about 

 the end of August, and sometimes as late as the (Mid of September, particularly in those 

 seasons when the harvest is backward. I have soxcral times killed both adult birds and 

 the young of the year when out partridgc-sliooting in llertfordsliire ; but I have observed 

 that these birds arc more numerous in (lie thickly- wooded parts of the middle of the 

 county of Kent than elsewhere." 



• Tuitur C'onun'.mis. Colnmha Tuitin\ t Conwnv. 



