258 COLUMBA. DOVE 



direct, I mean performed in a straight course without undula- 

 tions ; by rapid, ordinarily swift, and capable on occasion of 

 being urged to great celerity ; by light and steady, a kind of 

 buoyancy, intermediate between the laboured flight of hea^^'' 

 birds, and the wavering motion of those which have very long 

 wings and a short tail. The flaps of a pigeon's wing are smart, 

 and the interval occupied in raising and extending the wing is 

 greater than the time of its downward and inward action. On 

 this subject I shall take occasion to speak elsewhere, it being 

 one of great interest. Birds might be classed by their modes 

 of flight so as to form natural groups, and at least twenty dis- 

 tinct kinds of flight are presented by the S2:)ecies which inhabit 

 our own country. 



Four species of this genus are found in Britain. Of these, 

 three, the Kinged Dove, the Blue-backed Dove, and the Rock 

 Dove, are permanently resident, while the fourth, the Turtle 

 Dove, is a summer visitant. They agree in forming a rude 

 flat nest, in having two elliptical, smooth, white eggs, in rear- 

 ing more than one brood in the year, in uttering a plaintive 

 murmuring note, in feeding in open places, and in being more 

 or less gregarious, even in the breeding season. 



