464 THE ETNG DOTE. 



always some weeks before the Stock Dove. In harvest time it 

 may be noticed in groves near the corn fields. 



Food. It feeds on all sorts of corn, as well as leguminous 

 seeds, and bilberries. When confined, it must be fed at first on 

 wheat, afterwards on all sorts of grain, except oats. It is, 

 however, impossible to preserve it long. 



Breeding. The nest is built in high trees, and made of dried 

 branches in so clumsy a manner, as to be often blown down by 

 the wind. The female has two broods a year, and lays each 

 time two large white eggs. If the eggs be put under a domestic 

 Pigeon, they will be hatched, and the young birds, if kept 

 in a room at the season of migration, and during severe winters, 

 will be accustomed to the dovecot. The Ring Dove sometimes 

 pairs with the domestic Pigeon, but I have never observed any 

 result. Perhaps further experiments might succeed in produc- 

 ing a hybrid. 



Mode of Talcing. The Ring Dove may be caught like 

 the Stock Dove. Old birds when taken, learn to eat with 

 great difficulty ; and most of them would die of hunger, if not 

 crammed. 



Attractive Qualities. This is a handsome bird ; and the sono- 

 rous coo of the male is very agreeable. The accompanying 

 movements also are very amusing: he hops now forwards 

 now backwards, now sideways ; and turns his head in every 

 direction. The Ring Dove becomes exceedingly tame. 



ADDITIONAL. The Ringed Dove, Wood Pigeon, or Cushat, 

 are the names commonly applied to this bird, the largest known 

 to us of the Dove species, and by some naturalists considered as 

 the origin of the several beautiful varieties that inhabit the Dove- 

 cot and the Pigeon-house ; the difficulty of taming and induc- 

 ing it to live in a domestic state would seem to militate against 

 such an opinion. " It is," says, MACGILLIVEAY, " a strong bird of 

 its size, having its body large and full, the neck rather short, the 

 feet short and strong, the wings and tail rather long." According 

 to the same author, " the species is generally distributed, being 

 found in all the more or less wooded districts of England and Scot- 

 land ; but prefers cultivated tracts, avoiding those which are 

 bare and rocky ; and as it does not repose at night on rocks, it 

 is not met with in the unwooded isles of the North. In winter it 

 appears in large flocks, sometimes amounting to many hundreds, 

 when the individuals of a district congregate in some favourable 

 locality, although in ordinary circumstances it is not so decidedly 



