292 RING-DOVES. 



the close of the evening, by men who lay in ambush 

 among the woods and groves to kill them as they 

 came in to roost*. These are the principal circum- 

 stances relating to this wonderful internal migration, 

 which with us takes place towards the end of Novem- 

 ber, and ceases early in the spring. Last winter we 

 had, in Selborne High-wood, about a hundred of 

 these doves ; but in former times the flocks were so 

 vast, not only with us, but all the district around, 

 that on mornings and evenings they traversed the air, 

 like rooks, in strings, reaching for a mile together. 

 When they thus rendezvoused here by thousands, if 

 they happened to be suddenly roused from their roost- 

 trees on an evening, 



" Their rising all at once was like the sound 

 Of thunder heard remote." 



It will by no means be foreign to the present pur- 

 pose to add, that I had a relation in this neighbour- 

 hood who made it a practice for a time, whenever he 

 could procure the eggs of a ring-dove, to place them 

 under a pair of doves that were sitting in his own 

 pigeon-house, hoping thereby, if he could bring about 

 a coalition, to enlarge his breed, and teach his own 

 doves to beat out into the woods, and to support 

 themselves by mast. The plan was plausible, but 

 something always interrupted the success ; for though 

 the birds were usually hatched, and sometimes grew 

 to half their size, yet none ever arrived at maturity. 

 I myself have seen these foundlings in their nest dis- 

 playing a strange ferocity of nature, so as scarcely to 

 bear to be looked at, and snapping with their bills by 

 way of menace. Tn short, they always died, perhaps 



* Some old sportsmen say, that the main part of these flocks 

 used to withdraw as soon as the heavy Christmas frosts were 

 over. 



