CHAPTER IV. 



THE DOVE FAMILY 



(Columlrid&). 



The Cape Dove The Barred Dove The Graceful 

 Ground Dove The Barred-shouldered Dove 

 The Australian Crested Dove The Blood-breasted 

 Pigeon The Indian Green-winged Pigeon The 

 Australian Green-winged Pigeon The Bronze- 

 spotted Dove The Tambourine Pigeon The Java 

 Dove The Egyptian Turtle Dove, &c. 



j.OVES have long enjoyed the reputation of 

 being the most peaceful and gentle crea- 

 tures on earth, and a belief in their 

 merits, and especially in their fidelity and 

 affection for their mates and young, has long been 

 current among mankind so long, indeed, that I 

 feel a natural repugnance to "hold the mirror up to 

 nature" in their case and display them in their 

 true colours, divested of the fictitious adornments 

 wherewith they have been invested by inaccurate 

 observers, at a time when little was known of 

 natural history, and the imaginative descriptions of a 

 few writers were accepted without questioning as 



