14 TURTLE DOVE. 



some cases on the ground. It is composed of a handful of small 

 twigs, laid with little art, on which are scattered dry fibrous 

 roots of plants, and in this almost flat bed are deposited two 

 eggs, of a snowy whiteness. The male and female unite in feed- 

 ing the young, and they have rarely more than two broods in 

 the same season. 



The flesh of this bird is considered much superior to that of 

 the Wild Pigeon; but its seeming confidence in man, the ten- 

 derness of its notes, and the innocency attached to its character, 

 are with many its security and protection; with others, how- 

 ever, the tenderness of its flesh, and the sport of shooting, over- 

 come all other considerations. About the commencement of 

 frost, they begin to move off to the south; numbers, however, 

 remain in Pennsylvania during the whole winter. 



The Turtle Dove is twelve inches long, and seventeen inches 

 in extent; bill black; eye of a glossy blackness, surrounded with 

 a pale greenish blue skin; crown, upper part of the neck and 

 wings a fine silky slate blue; back, scapulars and lesser wing- 

 coverts ashy brown; tertials spotted with black: primaries edg- 

 ed 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 re- 

 flects 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 the 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 

 ones most so. 



The female is an inch shorter, and is otherwise only distin- 

 guished by the less brilliancy of her colour; she also wants the 

 rich silky blue on the crown, and much of the splendor of the 

 neck; the tail is also, somewhat shorter, and the white with 

 which it is marked less pure. 



