dt FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 
thought the builders exercised a distinet preference for 
the situation, as making them safer from the attack of 
hawks. 
Not an uncommon bird, hopping down between the rails 
to pick up the grain dropped from the freight-trains, was 
the turtle-dove, which was an old acquaintance of mine in 
the West, but which is rare in New England. They were 
very wary, uttered no note, and came with the silence of 
ghosts. If I only stirred when they were near, whir! away 
went my doves, straight and swift as an arrow, spreading 
their white-edged tails. 
A portion of the following summer I spent on the Little 
Kanawha, and many a day was I entertained by the notes 
of the turtle-dove floating down from a hill-top as I thread-, 
ed my way through the woods. Among the most common 
of birds in West Virginia, the people yet regarded it with 
affection, and made as great a disturbance if one was shot 
as they would at the shooting of a house-pigeon. They 
were jealous of the few purple martins they had in the 
same degree. Why it is called the turtle-dove I do not 
know. Probably because of its kinship with the turtle- 
dove of Europe; but this only puts the difficulty one step 
farther back. Its other name—mourning-dove—is more 
characteristic; for its song, if it may be called such, is a 
