THE RINGDOVE. 239 



have grown so had I paid them more attention, for, 

 if the truth must be told, after having actually kept 

 them and carefully observed their habits, my partiality 

 for the Ring Dove decreased, until at last I was glad 

 to give them all away. 



The Cushat, Woodquest, Ringdove, or Wood Pigeon^ 

 as the bird is indifferently named, feeds principally 

 when roaming at will through its native woods on 

 beech-mast, acorns, and any seeds it can find lying 

 about, and it is only in seasons of dearth that it does 

 harm to the farmer's crops by levying a light toll that 

 might well be granted the birds in consideration of 

 the good they do at other seasons. 



Occasionally they will build in gardens, even close 

 to a house, but only when the experience of generations 

 has taught them that they will not be molested. In 

 captivity, however, they will seldom breed, or even 

 pair, and although a single male will occasionally form 

 an alliance with a female of one of the domestic 

 varieties of Pigeon, the union is invariably unfruitful; 

 one or two instances to the contrary given, circum- 

 stantially, by continental authorities are explainable 

 by the fact of the supposed "White Pigeon" being an 

 albino specimen of the Ringdove. 



In Paris these birds have taken up their abode among 

 the trees in the public gardens, as they have in other 

 cities and in our own St. James's Park, where a few 

 summers ago I counted thirty head of them, some quite 



