538 THE TURTLE DOVE. 



left to common-sense, reason, and Nature, without the meddling 

 priest, rose to the simple grandeur of Christ and truth. Like 

 the turtle dove, they are noted for their conjugal fidelity; sit 

 by turns on their eggs, and share the feeding of their young. 

 When domesticated, they have four broods in the year, always 

 two at a time — male and female — hence a boy and girl are 

 called " a doo's cleckin," but like their tame successors they 

 sometimes breed monthly, and often have eggs before the 

 previous young have flown, sitting on eggs and rearing young at 

 the same time. They flock in August and in winter. 

 Like true love the male is jealous. As Rosalind says to 

 Orlando in their mock wooing in "As You Like It" — "1 

 will be more jealous of thee than a barbary cock pigeon 

 over his hen." Although we have no very high rocky cliffs 

 or caverns near St Andrews to harbour the rock dove, 

 yet the high spires of the east gable of our once magnificent 

 cathedral present such temptations to their half-wild successors 

 as to attract many of our stray domestic pigeons to roost and 

 breed. Dozens may be seen sitting on its spires without 

 being fed by the fancier or awed by the priest. It is 14 inches 

 long by 27 in extent of wings ; general colour, greyish-blue ; 

 iris, bright orange ; tarsi, short and feathered ; feet, carmine 

 purple. 



The Turtle Dove. 



Columba Turtur. (Linn.) 



" I, an old turtle, 

 Will wing me to some wither' d bough, and there 

 My mate, that's never to be found again, 

 Lament till I am lost." — The Winter's Tale. 



Turtle doves, like the rock pigeons, are noted for their 

 faithfulness to one another — although (like man) I have seen 

 both male and female pigeons incontinent, yet deserving not the 

 pun of Shakespeare that " A young man married was a young 

 man marred," for, " There is none righteous — no, not one." He 

 repeatedly quotes turtles as the types of chastity. In the 

 " Merry Wives of Windsor" he makes Mrs Ford say to Mr 

 Page, of lewd Sir John Falstaff, " We'll use this unwholesome 

 humidity, this gross watery pumpion ; we'll teach him to know 

 turtles from jays." In "The Winter's Tale" he makes 



