356 THE RINGDOVE. 



as she really is, not as she is represented in books : he sought her 

 in her sanctuaries. Well, be it so ; I do not dispute his word ; still 

 I suspect that, during the search and contemplation, either the dame 

 herself was in liquor, or her wooer in hallucination. 



THE RINGDOVE. 



THE supposed purity of the dove is a common topic with many 

 writers ; and their readers are apt to imagine that this bird has been 

 more favoured by Nature than the rest of the feathered tribe. What 

 may be allowed to romantic and sentimental composers, cannot by 

 any means be conceded to writers on natural history. Genuine 

 ornithology would be offended at the attempt to introduce unwar- 

 rantable matter into her pages ; while her true votaries would always 

 grieve on seeing it admitted into them. All wild birds which go in 

 pairs are invariably attached to each other by Nature's strongest 

 ties; and they can experience no feelings of what may be called 

 mistrust or suspicions of unfaithfulness ; otherwise we should witness 

 scenes of ornithological assault and battery in every hedge and 

 wood, during the entire process of their incubation. The soot-black 

 crow is just as chaste, affectionate, and constant as the snow-white 

 dove itself. The movements of both these birds, at a certain time 

 of the year, tend exactly to the same point. They are inherent and 

 unalterable in them, and, of course, are not to be repressed or 

 changed. At the interesting period of incubation, Nature knows no 

 distinction betwixt the cooing of the dove and the cackling of the 

 goose. Both sounds express the same emotions, and are perfectly 

 understood by the parties. They have only one plain and obvious 

 meaning. Audubon's description of his love-sick turtle-dove, which 

 listened with delight to her mate's " assurances of devoted affection," 

 and was " still coy and undetermined, and seemed fearful of the truth 

 of her lover," and, " virgin-like, resolved to put his sincerity to the 

 test," is lovesome nonsense, as far as regards the feathered tribe ; 



