COLUMBA TURTUR. 



539 



Florizel say to Perdita, "Your hand, my Perdita; so turtles 

 pair that never mean to part." And in the "Taming of the 

 Shrew" he makes Petruchio say to Katherina's father — 



" Father, 'tis thus — yourself and all the world, 

 That talk'd of her, have talk'd amiss of her. 

 If she be curst, it is for policy ; 

 For she's not froward, but modest as the dove; 

 She is not hot, but temperate as the morn. 

 For patience she will prove a second Grissel, 

 And Roman Lucrece for her chastity." 



At the sacking of Orleans, when Talbot wonders he did not 

 meet the Dauphin of France, the Duke of Burgundy in Henry 

 VI. answers — 



" I'm sure I scar'd the Dauphin and his trull, 

 When arm in arm they both came swiftly running 

 Like to a pair of loving turtle doves 

 That could not live asunder day or night." 



And in his verses to " Chester's Love's Martyr," Shakespeare 



says — 



" Phoenix and the turtle fled 

 In a mutual flame from hence." 



But though the emblems of love, doves are very pugnacious, 

 the males constantly quarrelling. The turtle is the smallest and 

 handsomest of our doves ; a summer visitant, arriving in the end 

 of April. It breeds in thick woods, and like the rest makes a 

 shallow nest of twigs, and lays two white eggs. I have one 

 stuffed which was shot near Boarhills in August 1863. Selby 

 says, "It is confined to two or three of the southern and some 

 of the midland counties of England," and Macgillivray says he 

 was " not aware of its ever been seen in Scotland" in a wild 

 state. It feeds upon all kinds of grain and seeds ; is often kept 

 in wicker cages, and breeds in confinement; is easily 

 domesticated ; its lively habits and plaintive cooing make it an 

 interesting house pet. It is found in all the temperate parts of 

 Europe. Its stay with us is brief, leaving early in September. 

 It is more slender, wings and tail comparatively longer, than 

 the rest of the doves ; general colour of the adult, head bluish- 

 grey ; on each side of the neck is a black patch, each feather 

 margined with white ; scapulars and wing-coverts black and 

 bluish-grey, broadly margined with buff-orange ; iris, reddish- 

 orange ; legs and feet, red ; female similar, but paler ; length, 

 11 \ by 21 in extent of wings. Their eggs are \\ in. long, 

 against If of the ring dove's. 



