RING-DOVE. 337 



city parks. By Ring-Dove many understand only the domesti- 

 cated dove with a black ring on its neck, which when allowed 

 its freedom makes itself at home in woods and gardens, but the 

 name is correctly applied to the Wood-Pigeon. 



Even in the London parks the Ring-Dove (Plate 147), the 

 largest of our wild pigeons, is a familiar bird ; indeed, it is there 

 so confiding that we have excellent opportunity of studying its 

 portly figure and beautiful plumage ; in the country, where it is 

 not beloved, it is shy. It walks, perches, and bows with swelled 

 neck and fanned tail like a dovecot bird, but has certain cha- 

 " racters and habits of its own. It can always be told by the white 

 patch on its neck, and when flying by the transverse white bar 

 on the wing. Its note, heard at all times, but most frequently 

 in March and April, is often insufficiently represented by a 

 series of coos. There are, however, two hard sounds and a 

 double note in each phrase, which is usually repeated about 

 three times. The old interpretation, " Tak' two coos, Taffy, 

 tak' two coos, Taffy, tak'," or Mr, Bolam's " Tak' care noo, 

 hinny," give a better idea, the first two words sharp, the 

 third drawled. Almost invariably the bird ends with the 

 hard tak or cue. Bowing and cooing is often interrupted by 

 a display of nuptial flight ; the bird rises rather steeply with 

 strong though not rapid wing-beats, then stiffening its wings, 

 falls and rises in a series of undulations, at the end of which 

 there is a sharp crack, caused by a strong down beat of the 

 wing, and not, as so often stated, by the wings clapping together. 

 The pectoral muscles are powerful ; the bird fights with the 

 wings, and even a "squab " in the nest will give a smart blow. 



Sportsmen declare that the Wood-Pigeon is difficult to kill, 

 the shot glancing off its feathers as if it were clad in mail ; 

 certainly its pinions sound stiff and hard when with a clatter it 

 dashes through the branches. But it is possible that it is the 

 softness of its plumage which presents a cushion to the shot, 

 for few birds have softer or looser covering. A keeper will 



Series II. Z 



