CHAP.V.J ESCAPADES. 177 



account of Pigeons, that blinded Turtles were frequently 

 kept as decoy-birds. But our runaways were at last 

 heartily glad to be caught and brought home ; and like 

 truant schoolboys on the approach of night-fall, would 

 rather encounter a scolding, or even a whipping, than 

 face the horrors of a supperless night, without a bed to 

 lie on ! 



These outbreaks sometimes lead them into scrapes 

 which they little anticipate. One spring morning, 

 eleven years ago this season, an old parishioner of 

 mine, a carter by trade, on his usual journey to and 

 from Norwich, was surprised by a pair of Collared Tur- 

 tles hovering about his head and shoulders, as he was 

 riding leisurely on his tumbril, and showing themselves 

 desirous of alighting thereon. Doubtless they were 

 tired with some, to them, long flight from comfortable 

 quarters. He secured one, the male (as he might the 

 other had he chosen), and brought it home. It has been 

 kept ever since in a small cage, and seems perfectly 

 happy and healthy, having no domestic troubles to vex 

 it. I would have brought the people a mate for their 

 bird, but they were contented with the single one ; and 

 as the old couple are both turned of eighty, their little 

 captive may probably survive them. 



A lady residing near Cork had, in 1849, a bird of 

 equal age with this. A communication with which she 

 has favoured me will show exactly with what amount of 

 truth the term " domestic" is applied to the Collared 

 Turtle. 



"My opportunities of observing the attachment of 

 these birds to place, have been very limited ; for, owing 

 to the damp and cold of our climate, I have never ven- 

 tured them out in the open air, except during the day ; 



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