PIGEON. 



463 



domesticated, they very soon become tame in con- 

 finement. If the pair is caught, their attachment for 

 each other continues, they caress the hand which 

 feeds them, and their whole manners are beautifully 

 simple, and their attitudes remarkably graceful. As 

 we have mentioned of some of the other species, it 

 has been well ascertained, that immediately before 

 the younu' break the shell the inner coat of the craw 

 becomes glandulous, and secretes a fluid, by means of 

 which the young are fed when in their unfledged and 

 helpless state. When the leguminous plants begin to 

 have seeds in their pods the turtles come more abroad, 

 and it is understood that by this time the young accom- 

 pany them. They feed upon the ground, or reposing 

 upon herbaceous plants, just as pigeons do ; but they 

 roost in the thick cover of the groves, both in their 

 mid-day siesta and during the night. In England 

 they have no time to rear a second brood, for in 

 August they begin to appear in little flocks upon 

 Romney Marsh, and other open places near the south- 

 eastern shore, and about the latter end of August 

 they take their departure. Kent is their grand head- 

 quarters with us ; and small and gentle as they are, 

 they sometimes commit pretty extensive ravages upon 

 the fields of peas. The number of the broods in 

 warmer climates has not been ascertained. 



The Collared Turtle. This is a smaller and more 

 delicate species than the former, and it dwells nearer 

 the laud of the sun. It is pretty well ascertained 

 that this species is the turtle alluded to in the Bible, 

 and also the bird which was considered by the mytho- 

 logies of old as sacred to the goddess of Love. The 

 delicacy of its habits will be readily understood from 

 its being represented in the passage which we have 

 quoted, as a migrant bird, appearing only at the com- 

 mencement of summer, even in Syria. It has been a 

 great favourite from the earliest recorded times, and 

 it has been in so far domesticated. It is true that it 

 requires to be kept in confinement, but still it will 

 breed in captivity, and it is very prolific if proper 

 attention is bestowed upon it. But though the 

 descendants of the domesticated ones have been con- 

 tinued for many generations, the tendency to escape 

 has never been overcome ; so that though it is some- 

 times called the domestic turtle in distinction from 

 the other, it is really not a domesticated bird, but one 

 which no continuance of breeding in confinement has 

 the least tendency to domesticate. It has not the 

 habit in wild nature upon which domestication de- 

 pends ; and experience has satisfactorily proved, that 

 if an animal has not this habit it cannot be domesti- 

 cated, however gentle it may be in a state of confine- 

 ment. The climate of Britain is unfavourable to the 

 breeding of so delicate a bird, without more attention 

 than most people have either time or inclination to 

 bestow upon it ; but in warmer climates, where the 

 task is easier, and the labour of man is of less value, 

 it is very extensively kept as an ornamental house 

 bird. 



In its habits it is fully as migratory as the common 

 turtle, ranging occasionally through the whole of 

 Africa, and being met with as far south as the Cape. 

 It comes into Europe during the summer, but oidy 

 into the wanner countries, and there is no instance 

 of its being found in any part of Britain even as an 

 occasional straggler. The length of the bird is rather 

 more than ten inches, its form is light and delicate, 

 its wings long, its tail long and rather rounded, and it 

 is altogether well organised for flight. The colours, 



as in the former species, are subject to variation, but 

 the following may be regarded as the average. The 

 clothing feathers on the upper part grey, glossed with 

 a rosy tinge. The coverts of the wings cream yel- 

 low, and the tail-feathers ash colour, having white 

 tips to all except the two middle ones, and white 

 margins to the two exterior. The head is bluish 

 grey, darker on the forehead and paler on the front ; 

 the cheeks, neck, breast, and belly, are grey, with a 

 purplish shade ; there is a half collar of black on the 

 hind neck, terminating in points forwards ; and the 

 vent-feathers and under tail-coverts are white. In 

 some specimens, however, the whole plumage is white, 

 with a simple indication of the collar, and the coloured 

 ones are of a great variety of shades. Though this 

 turtle has been celebrated, and justly celebrated, for 

 the gentleness of its manners, and the tenderness of 

 its attachments, it is the common turtle which is the 

 bird of plaintive song ; and the voice of this one has 

 more the character of a merry than of a mournful 

 sound, for it has been compared to a short and sub- 

 dued laugh ; and this harmonises with its voice being 

 enumerated among the joyous signs of the coming 

 summer in that passage of the Song of Solomon which 

 we have quoted on a preceding page. This difference 

 of voice, independently altogether of size, colour, and 

 locality, would be sufficient to establish a specific 

 difference between the two ; but the point has been 

 further demonstrated by the mixed progeny being 1 

 capable of self-continuation. 



Carolina Turtle. This of course is a North Ame- 

 rican bird, ranging in the summer as far as Canada, 

 but moving southward in the winter, partially eveu 

 from the middle states of the American Union. Their 

 great winter quarter appears to be in the Carolinas 

 and states to the south, where they appear in great 

 numbers. They are interesting birds on three ac- 

 counts ; first, on account of the melancholy and 

 affecting sound of their notes during the breeding 

 season ; secondly, on account of the high estimation 

 in which the flesh is held, and the ease with which 

 it can be procured in consequence of the familiarity 

 of their manners ; and, thirdly, because, in form, they 

 hold a sort of intermediate station between the turtles 

 with the tails rounded, such as the two species which 

 we have noticed, and those with the tails very long 

 and exceedingly wedge-shaped. There is a farther 

 advantage Alexander Wilson is the historian of 

 their manners. 



The following is his description of the birds : 

 " The turtle-dove is twelve inches long and seventeen 

 in extent ; bill black ; eye of a glossy blackness, sur- 

 rounded with a pale greenish-blue skin ; crown, upper 

 part of the neck, and wings, a fine silky slate-blue; 

 back, scapulars, and upper wing-coverts, ashy-brown ; 

 tertiats spotted with black ; primaries edged and tipt 

 with white ; forehead, sides of the neck, and breast, a 

 pale brown-vinous-orange : under the ear-feathers a 

 spot or drop of deep black, immediately below which 

 the plumage reflects the most vivid tints of green, 

 gold, and crimson; chin pale yellow-ochre; belly 

 and vent whitish ; legs and feet coral-red, seamed 

 with white ; the tail is long and cuneiform, consisting 

 of fourteen feathers ; the four exterior ones on each 

 side are marked with black, about an inch from the 

 tips, and white thence to the extremity ; the next 

 has less of white at the tip; these gradually lengthen 

 to the four middle ones, which are wholly dark slate ; 

 all of them taper towards the points, the two middle 



