188 NATURAL HISTORY 



and especially in snowy weather, but also at the close 

 of the evening, by men who lay in ambush among the 

 woods and groves to kill them as they came in to 

 roost 4 . These are the principal circumstances relating 

 to this wonderful internal migration, which with us 

 takes place towards the end of November, and ceases 

 early in the spring. Last winter we had, in Selborne 

 high wood, about a hundred of these doves ; but in 

 former times the flocks were so vast, not only with 

 us but all the district round, that on mornings and 

 evenings they traversed the air, like rooks, in strings, 

 reaching for a mile together. When they thus rendez- 

 voused here by thousands, if they happened to be sud- 

 denly roused from their roost trees on an evening, 



" Their rising all at once was like the sound 

 Of thunder heard remote." 



It will by no means be foreign to the present purpose 

 to add, that I had a relation in this neighbourhood 

 who made it a practice, for a time, whenever he could 

 procure the eggs of a ring-dove, to place them under a 

 pair of doves that were sitting in his own pigeon-house ; 

 hoping thereby, if he could bring about a coalition, to 

 enlarge his breed, and teach his own doves to beat out 

 into the woods and to support themselves by mast : the 

 plan was plausible, but something always interrupted 

 the success ; for though the birds were usually hatched, 

 and sometimes grew to half their size, yet none ever 

 arrived at maturity. I myself have seen these found- 

 lings in their nest displaying a strange ferocity of 

 nature, so as scarcely to bear to be looked at, and 

 snapping with their bills by way of menace. In short, 

 they always died, perhaps for want of proper suste- 

 nance : but the owner thought that by their fierce and 

 wild demeanor they frighted their foster-mothers, and 

 so were starved. 



4 Some old sportsmen say that the main part of these flocks used to 

 withdraw as soon as the heavy Christmas frosts were over. 



