284 OUR SUMMER MIGRANTS. 



compared with the Wood Pigeon, being rather 

 dry and somewhat insipid. Their flight is 

 rapid, and when suddenly flushed they go off at 

 such a pace, that it requires a quick shot to bring 

 one down. 



When taken young they are readily tamed, 

 and will even breed in confinement, a thing that 

 rarely happens in the case of the Wood Pigeon. 

 Mr. Stevenson has known two or three instances 

 in which this species when caged has crossed 

 with the Collared Turtle-Dove ( Turtur risoria) 

 and reared a brood, and others have been re- 

 corded. The young " presented many charac- 

 teristics of both parents." 1 



Although commoner in the eastern and south- 

 eastern counties of England, the Turtle-Dove 

 is generally dispersed in summer throughout the 

 British Islands. In Ireland it is regarded as an 

 annual visitant to the cultivated districts, and it 

 has been found in most of the counties of 

 Scotland, where Mr. Robert Gray, however, 



1 "The Birds of Norfolk," vol. i. p. 360. 



