52 THE RING-DOVE DISEASE 



Their age already has probably exceeded the normal 

 span of any British mammal, cetaceans excepted. 

 Year after year, when the pairing season comes round, 

 one of these old maids falls hopelessly in love with 

 a swan. Wherever the swan swims, the goose follows, 

 circling round the object of her adoration, uttering 

 monotonous notes of entreaty, and laying her foolish 

 neck upon the water before him. This goes on for 

 about a month, whereby one would think the swan 

 would become intensely bored ; but he never displays 

 the slightest irritation; takes no notice of the antics 

 of the love-sick one, turning himself callously upside 

 down in pursuit of subaqueous delicacies. All this were 

 scarcely worth recording but for a singular parallel to 

 it which I witnessed in April 1908. I was staying in 

 the hotel which overlooks the quaint little harbour 

 of Tarbert, Loch Fyne. My attention was roused by 

 the iterated dissyllabic cry of a Canadian goose. On 

 looking forth, I beheld an exact repetition of the per- 

 formance I knew so well, and had seen a few days 

 before on my own loch, one hundred and fifty miles to 

 the south. There was a goose courting a phlegmatic 

 swan, and going through the identical gyrations on salt 

 water with which my own involuntary celibate had 

 made me so familiar. 



XV 



Many alarming hypotheses have been put forward 



The Ring- concerning the disease which caused so 



dove Disease much mortality among wood-pigeons in 



1907. It was alleged that authentic diagnosis had 



