CHAP, vi.] THE TURTLE DOVE. 189 



Ring Doves are irregularly migratory, sometimes 

 appearing in large flocks, the numbers composing which 

 seem incredible when estimated. They commit great 

 havoc on the new-sown grain and the buds of the young 

 clover plant ; they also eat great quantities of mast and 

 the seeds of noxious weeds. Rewards have been offered 

 in Scotland for their destruction, with the view of 

 keeping them down; but this is of little use unless at 

 the same time a tall net, over which they could not fly, 

 could be stretched somewhere, as a colossal fence, be- 

 tween Norway and our eastern coast. The best means 

 of reducing their numbers is to publish their excellence 

 for the table at the times when they do not feed upon 

 turnips. Then they punish the farmer indeed, pecking 

 holes in the bulbs for the frost and wet to work upon. 

 The young birds would be acceptable in London in the 

 height of the fashionable season; but then no game- 

 keeper will allow a gun to be fired in his preserves, 

 lest more valuable prey should be driven into the next 

 parish. 



The TURTLE DOVE (C. Turtur) is a very pretty, very 

 untrustworthy little creature, less known than the pre- 

 ceding. When reared from the nest, it becomes tame 

 enough to be even an interesting cage bird ; but a pair 

 thus educated, and seemingly contented, in a green- 

 house, slipped out cunningly, and were never heard of 

 again. Perhaps, by the time their flight was discovered, 

 they had got half way to Africa ; for the very best part 

 only of the year will suit them with us. They adopt 

 the family habits of drinking deeply at a draught, and 

 tickling each other's heads. The coo might be mistaken 

 for the croaking of a frog or toad. When heard close 

 at hand, it has a sort of burring, bubbling sound, and 



