330 COLUMBHLE. 



food. In districts abounding in oak and beech woods, 

 they find abundance of food during the greater part of the 

 winter ; but when this supply is exhausted, or the ground 

 is covered with snow, they repair once more to the turnip- 

 fields, and feed on the green leaves. Hunger, however, does 

 not rob them of their shyness, nor make them confiding ; 

 for let a human figure appear in ever so large a field 

 where a flock is feeding, the alarm is at once caught and 

 communicated to the whole party, who lose no time in 

 displaying the white bar on the wing, and are soon beyond 

 the reach of fowler and gun. 



Among the first woodland sounds of spring and the last 

 of autumn is the note of the King Dove, often continued 

 for a long time together, always monotonous, bat never 

 wearisome. It is generally considered to be tinged with 

 melancholy, and on this account the bird itself is supposed 

 to have been named the Queest * or Cushat 



"Deep toned 



The Cushat plains ; nor is her changeless plaint 

 Unmusical, when with the general quire 

 Of woodland harmony it softly blends." 



Grahame, 



Wordsworth celebrates it under a name generally given 

 to the next species : 



" I heard a Stock Dove sing or say 

 His homely tale, this very day ; 

 His voice was buried among trees, 

 Yet to be come at by the breeze. 

 It did not cease ; but cooed and cooed, 

 And somewhat pensively he wooed ; 

 He sang of love with quiet blending, 

 Slow to begin, and never ending ; 

 Of sorrows, faith, and inward glee ; 

 That was the song, the song for me." 



* Latin questus, a complaining. 



