224 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
A favourite trick of the Yarkand boys is to capture one of these Doves 
and smear its feathers all over with soot mixed up with oil. The bird 
is then allowed to fly away, and after a few days, when the feathers 
have shaken into their ordinary position, the Ring-Dove presents quite 
a natural appearance, only as it moves about with its fellows it looks 
truly a Dove in mourning.” 
It is a very sociable bird, and is generally found feeding in some 
numbers together, but it, strictly speaking, keeps more in pairs than in 
flocks, only collecting in these latter prior to indulging in one of their 
local migrations when, according to some writers, they assemble in 
very large numbers, often of a hundred or so more individuals. 
Their flight is much the same as that of the Spotted Dove, but 
stronger and quicker; they rise off the ground in the same noisy 
manner, but, when disturbed, generally fly further before re-settling. 
Their note is a trisyllabic “coo,” repeated softly two or three 
times, and is very melodious and sweet. According to Blyth it “is 
quite different from that of the domestic Turtle-Dove, and may be 
expressed by kookoo-koo, kookoo-koo.” 
