RING-DOVE. 897" 
certainly the best-known of its kind in the British Islands. In our mild 
climate it remains throughout the year ; but in North Germany, in con- 
sequence of the severity of the winter, it is only known as an early spring 
migrant, arriving in March and leaving in October. It haunts all wooded 
districts, from the rich low-lying forests and game-coverts on the lowlands 
and near the coast to the larch- and fir-plantations on the mountains and 
the moors. It is very partial to a wooded park, and often frequents 
shrubberies which are mixed with deciduous trees, as well as the open 
fields, in the hedges of which there are plenty of trees, and now and then 
a little copse in the out-of-the-way corners. At all seasons of the year it 
may be seen, either on the open fields or in the shady woods, according to 
time and season; and though a proverbially wary bird, it may often be 
seen quietly feeding in the fields within a few yards of a passing train. 
The flight of this handsome bird is straightforward, very powerful, and 
rapid. As it flies, the white parts in the wings and the white collar show 
very conspicuously, the latter often shining with great brilliancy in the 
sunlight. 
The love-song or serenade of the Ring-Dove is one of the most charac- 
teristic sounds of the spring, and in districts where they are abundant 
the entire woods seem filled with their gentle murmurs ; it sounds parti- 
cularly soothing and pleasant in early April, when every thing seems 
waking into life after the long winter sleep. The note is a soft full 
€00-00-00, coo-roo-00, and is most vigorously repeated when the male is 
paying court to his mate. 
In no place is the Ring-Dove tamer than in the Jardin des Plantes, 
in Paris. They may be seen walking about on the grass in the enclosures 
where the deer and other animals are kept, and seem to take no notice 
whatever of the visitors strolling in the grounds. They will allow them to 
approach within a few paces, as they sit perched upon the railings or in the 
low branches of the trees, or, in the company of Sparrows, steal the food 
which is wasted by the animals. They may constantly be seen flying over 
Paris in the direction of these gardens, and they may be often observed 
slightly ascending, with motionless wings, describing a curve in the air 
before they descend on a branch near the top of a tree. They are equally 
tame in the park outside the gates of Berlin; and Dixon has remarked the 
same in the grounds of the mausoleum near Grimsby, in Lincolnshire. 
They even allowed him to pass within a few yards of their nests without 
leaving their eggs. 
The Ring-Dove is an early breeder, and often commences its nest late in 
March or early in April. It chooses a variety of situations. A favourite 
site is in a plantation of firs ; it also selects almost every forest-tree for its 
purpose, sometimes making its nest in a tall hedge, a holly, or a yew tree, 
and has been known to build in the branches of a whin bush. In forest- 
