236 BRITISH LAND BIRDS. 



eat it, is considered an act of profanation. I had 

 one day an opportunity of observing, myself, how 

 the respect for the pigeon prevails amongst the 

 lower orders. I shot six away from a village, at 

 one shot, and brought them home with the inten- 

 tion of making a pigeon-pie ; when I threw them 

 on the table, a Eussian servant who was near, 

 after several ejaculations against my impiety and 

 cruelty, snatched up one of the dead birds, and, 

 bursting into tears, commenced kissing and fond- 

 ling it." 



These beautiful birds abound in most of the 

 temperate and tropical regions of the earth, being, 

 however, far more numerous and more gor- 

 geously attired in the latter, where they some- 

 times literally realize the beautiful picture given 

 by the psalmist; "As the wings of a dove 

 covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow 

 gold!" The genus " Columba" is, indeed, one of 

 the largest and most universally diffused of all 

 the feathered tribes ; being found in all quarters 

 of the globe, and almost every island of the sea. 

 Our British groves are made musical by its 

 voice. 



"Where, o'er his own sweet notes, the. ring-dove broods." 



Doves feed more exclusively on vegetables than 

 almost any other birds. They do not even feed 



