146 THE RINGDOVE. 



inherent and unalterable in them, and, of course, 

 are not to be repressed or changed. At the inter- 

 esting period of incubation, Nature knows no dis- 

 tinction betwixt the cooing of the dove and the 

 cackling of the goose. Both sounds express the 

 same emotions, and are perfectly understood by the 

 parties. They have only one plain and obvious 

 meaning. Audubon's description of his love-sick 

 turtle-dove, which listened with delight to her 

 mate's "assurances of devoted affection," and was 

 "still coy and undetermined, and seemed fearful 

 of the truth of her lover," and, " virgin-like, resolved 

 to put his sincerity to the test," is lovesome non- 

 sense, as far as regards the feathered tribe; and is 

 a burlesque upon the undeviating tenor of Nature's 

 course. Those who approve of such absurd aber- 

 rations from the line of instinct allotted to birds, 

 would do well to confine their studies to the ro- 

 mances on their drawing-room tables. Let us hope 

 that better days are in store for ornithology ; and 

 that when the ardent novice shall turn over the 

 pages which may be really intended for his improve- 

 ment in this fascinating study, he will find their 

 contents in unison with what he will observe after- 

 wards in Nature's boundless range. 



If size and beauty give a claim to priority, the 

 ringdove will hold the first place in the scanty 

 catalogue of the wild pigeons of Europe. It stays 

 with us in Yorkshire the whole of the year ; and, in 

 the winter months, it resorts chiefly to the turnip 

 fields for sustenance, where it feeds voraciously on 

 the leaves, and not on the body, of the turnip. The 



