THE RINGDOVE. 357 



and is a burlesque upon the undeviating tenor of Nature's course. 

 Those who approve of such absurd aberrations from the line of 

 instinct allotted to birds, would do well to confine their studies to 

 the romances on their drawing-room tables. Let us hope that better 

 days are in store for ornithology, and that when the ardent novice 

 shall turn over the pages which may be really intended for his im- 

 provement in this fascinating study, he will find their contents in 

 unison with what he will observe afterwards in Nature's boundless 

 range. 



If size and purity give a claim to priority, the ringdove will hold 

 the first place in the scanty catalogue of the wild pigeons of Europe. 

 It stays with us in Yorkshire the whole of the year ; and, in the 

 winter months, it resorts chiefly to the turnip fields for sustenance, 

 where it feeds voraciously on the leaves, and not on the body, of the 

 turnip. The leaves are said to impart a rank and disagreeable taste 

 to the flesh of the bird ; but this is easily prevented by cutting open 

 the crop as soon as the pigeon is killed, and discharging the con- 

 tents. White of Selborne recommends this process. Towards the 

 evening the form of the ringdove becomes considerably changed. 

 Having fed on the turnip tops during the course of the day, its crop 

 gets so distended with food that it gives to the fore-part of the 

 pigeon's body a very full appearance ; and this is easily discerned as 

 the bird passes over your head to its evening retreat. The contents 

 of the stomach having been digested during the night, we observe 

 that the body has regained its ordinary proportions at the break of 

 day. 



There has been a great increase of ringdoves during the winter 

 season in this part of the country, since the farmers have paid so 

 much attention to the cultivation of turnips. On seeing the congre- 

 gated numbers of these birds, one is led to imagine that there must 

 be an annual influx of them, at the close of autumn, from some far- 

 distant part. As the ringdove is an unprotected bird, and much 

 sought after on account of the delicacy of its flesh, I have strong 

 doubts whether our breeding season can produce a sufficient supply 

 to make up the flocks which are seen here in winter. At all events, 

 in this quarter of Yorkshire, very few young ringdoves are allowed 

 to escape. Farmers and gamekeepers are ever on the look-out to 



