RING DOVE. 



of flight ; and this species may be recognised when on the 

 wing almost as far off as any bird I am acquainted with. 



Considerable pains have been taken by different indivi- 

 duals to domesticate this species, and the eggs are fre- 

 quently obtained and placed under other Pigeons ; but it 

 generally happens that as soon as the young birds are able 

 to fly, and have learned to feed themselves, they take their 

 departure for more natural haunts. 



M. Vieillot says that they have not been able to succeed 

 in France in inducing this bird to breed in confinement, 

 though this secret was known to the ancients. Several per- 

 sons have failed in this country ; but, on the other hand, 

 some have succeeded. Mr. Thomas Allis, of York, was 

 successful two or three seasons following. These birds have 

 bred in the aviary of the late Earl of Derby at Knowsley ; 

 and a pair of these birds in the Dove-house at the Gar- 

 dens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park, 

 built a nest, and produced two eggs ; but, unfortunately, 

 during the period of incubation, in which the male as- 

 sisted, the eggs were broken by some of the numerous 

 other birds, most of them of the same genus, with which 

 they were confined. 



This species is found as far south as the latitude of 

 Madeira, and goes eastward to Sicily and Crete, and as 

 far northward in summer as the southern parts of Siberia 

 and Russia. It is found also in summer in Denmark and 

 Sweden, but not in Norway or Lapland. 



The beak is reddish orange; the soft parts about the 

 nostrils almost white ; irides straw yellow ; head and upper 

 part of the neck bluish grey ; the feathers on the sides of 

 the neck tipped with white, forming parts of four or five 

 oblique rings ; back, scapulars, both sets of wing-coverts 

 and the tertials, a shade darker than the head; the first 

 four or five feathers of both sets of wing-coverts white, 



u 2 



