174 THE COLLARED TURTLE. [CHAP. v. 



Pigeon-lofts, may often be reared by mouth. The 

 human nurse takes a small quantity of peas or wheat, 

 and water, into his or her mouth, then, taking the 

 squab in hand, inserts its bill into the mouth so pro- 

 visioned ; and, after a trial or two, the young bird will 

 take its food in this manner as readily as if it were fed 

 by its feathered parent, and thus progress till it is able 

 to peck for itself from the ground. 



THE COLLARED TURTLE*. 



(Columba risoria of Linnaeus, Turtur rlsorius of authors.) 



The charming little creatures which we now approach 

 are admitted into the class of Pigeons that are found both 

 in a wild and a domestic state rather by courtesy than by 

 right. Still, the entree shall be granted to them, although 

 Mr. Jenyns has omitted them in his " Manual of British 

 Vertebrata," in which domesticated, naturalized and ex- 

 tirpated species are included. In their wild condition 

 they are met with in Southern Europe, Northern and 

 Western Africa, and in Western Asia ; in their tame state 

 they are dispersed all over the civilized globe, where the 

 winter temperature does not forbid their introduction. 

 As domestics, they can hardly be said to have yet re- 

 ceived a sufficient training. Their intellect has just 



* A confusion exists, in the minds of many people, between the 

 Common Turtle, Colunriba Turtur, which is frequent in a wild state 

 in England during the summer months, and the Collared Turtle, or 

 Turtle Dove in popular English, or Turtur Indicus, as given by Al- 

 drovandi, according to custom cum latyro altero, which in England is 

 only known in captivity. As the European Ring-Pigeon has a simi- 

 lar ornament on the neck with our species, a further distinction has 

 been founded on its cry of triumph, which strongly resembles a 

 laugh, and from which it has been called the Turtur risorius, or 

 Laughing Turtle. 



