402 COLUMBiE. 



Oil buckwheat and acorns, for wliicli tliey frequent 

 those locahties that furnish the best supply ; and 

 when this kind of nourishment ftdls, they resort to 

 cultivated fields. For this purpose they take their 

 way early in the morning from their roosting-places 

 in the woods, and when satisfied, fly to rest on the 

 nearest trees, till the hour of their evening meal, 

 after which they again retire to the woods. Some 

 species always inhabit rocky places and ^precipitous 

 cliff's, especially those on the sea-coasts of Great 

 Britain and Asia. 



The type of this sub-family, — 



The Ring-Dove {Cohimha Fcdumbus), called also the 

 Cushat and the Wood-Pigeon, is the largest of the Euro- 

 pean species, some specimens measuring seventeen inches 

 in length. It inhabits the woods both of this country and 

 of the continent of Europe, but is most abundant in the 

 south, being only a summer visitor to the more northern 

 countries, such as Norway and Sweden. It is particularly 

 fond of thick plantations of firs, m which it delights to 

 build ; and here its tender cooing notes may be heard 

 throughout the spring and summer. The food of these 

 birds consists of young leaves and seeds of various kinds, 

 according to the season of the year. In spring and 

 summer they subsist principally on the tender leaves of 

 growing plants, and often commit great ravages in fields 

 of beans and peas. Spring-sown corn is attacked by 

 them both in the grain and the blade, and as soon as 

 young turnips liave put forth their second pair of leaves, 

 they, too, become objects for devastation. As the season 

 advances, they visit the cornfields, especially those in the 

 neighbourhood of their native woods. They are very 

 partial to oily seeds of any kind. At tlie approach of 

 autumn, they assemble in small flocks, and resort to oak 

 and beech woods, where acorns and beech-mast swallowed 

 whole afford an abundant and nourishing diet. In wmter 

 the small flocks unite to form larger ones, so large, indeed, 

 in severe seasons, that it becomes probable that their 

 numbers are considerably augmented by arrivals from 

 colder climates. 



This pretty Dove is one of the commonest of ouj' 



