TURTLE DOVE. 293 



5h twelfths, its claw /^ ; second toe /j, its claw, 2^ twelfths; 

 third toe lOi twelfths, its claw 3i twelfths; fourth toe j%y its 

 claw 2i twelfths. 



Female. — The female has the colours similar, but consider- 

 ably paler. 



Habits. — The Turtle Dove is very extensively distributed, 

 extending, according to authors, over the greater part of the 

 old continent, but not entering the arctic regions. In some of 

 the southern countries it is a permanent resident, but in the 

 colder is migratory, as in England, where it arrives in the end 

 of spring. The south-eastern counties are those which it pre- 

 fers ; and in Kent, as Latham observes, it frequents the pea- 

 fields in flocks of twenty or more. Montagu states that it is 

 found, though rarely, as far westward as Devonshire ; but it 

 does not appear to breed in the northern or even the middle 

 districts ; although, as stated by Bewick and Mr. Selby, some 

 individuals have been seen in Northumberland in autumn. 

 I am not aware of its ever having occurred in Scotland. Ac- 

 cording to Montagu, Latham, and other creditable writers, it 

 inhabits the thick w^oods, but frequents the open fields, where 

 it searches for seeds of all kinds, flies in small flocks, nestles in 

 the thickest trees, forming a carelessly constructed nest of twigs, 

 on which it deposits two white eggs, emits a peculiarly plain- 

 tive cry, and after rearing its young, departs in September. I 

 believe there is little more to be found in the works of our 

 most approved authors respecting it ; and I am unable to de- 

 tail its history from my owm observation. The specimen from 

 which the above description has been taken I obtained in Lon- 

 don. Two eggs in my possession are of a narrov/ish oval, rather 

 pointed form, w^hite, and glossy, one an inch and a quarter in 

 length, the other a little shorter, their breadth ten tw^elfths. 



Young. — According to Montagu, " the young do not throw 

 out the black feathers on the neck the first year, and the bare 

 space about the eyes is of a grey colour." 



