CHAPTER LVII. 



Turtle. 



|N the last chapter I had occasion to mention this 

 bird, which is merely a white (perhaps an albino) 

 variety of the Common Barbary or Laughing, otherwise 

 Collared Turtle; it is also frequently spoken of as the 

 Java Dove, but is supposed, not without reason, to be 

 of Chinese creation ; the children of the Flowery Land 

 being well-known adepts in the Jacobean art of modi- 

 fying colour in domestic and other animals, witness 

 their white Java Sparrows and Mannikins, which last 

 are also called Bengalis, or Bengalees, so that the 

 rumour which connects these white Doves with the 

 Celestial Empire is probably correct. 



Compared with the ordinary members of its species, 

 the Japanese Turtle presents no special peculiarity save 

 its milk-white colour, for in size, shape and voice it 

 exactly resembles its relatives, though it is more 

 delicate, and cannot be safely wintered out of doors in 

 this country. 



At one time, not very long ago, these Doves were 



