THE CRESTED DOVE. 287 



case, for they are very affectionate creatures and the 

 pairs are much attached to each other. 



These birds were some of the common objects of the 

 Bush when I was in Australia, where we used to call 

 them, why I know not, Ground Thrushes 1 I was very 

 anxious to have a pair of them for my aviary, but a 

 long time elapsed before I could gratify my wish. 

 At length, however, I procured a pair in exchange 

 for some of my Cambayan hybrids and found that in 

 their case (the Crested Doves') enchantment was not 

 altogether the effect of distance, for the birds were 

 very delightful from every point of view. 



Extremely quiet, they did not interfere in the. least 

 with the tiniest of their fellow-inmates, but, on the 

 contrary, permitted themselves to be driven away from 

 the seed-pan by birds that were not half their size, so 

 that I congratulated myself immensely on my new 

 acquisition, and thought that if the Doves could only 

 be induced to breed how very delightful it would be. 



They had bred freely in other aviaries, I was aware, 

 for I knew of one instance in which sixteen young 

 ones had been obtained from a single pair in one 

 season, by the simple device of transferring their eggs 

 to some Barbary Turtles whose own were, of course,, 

 destroyed, and these simple creatures hatched the 

 valuable eggs of the Australians, and brought up the 

 young ones as carefully and tenderly as if they had 

 been their own. 



