RING-DOVE. 73 



meet behind, forming a collar or ring which occasions the 

 name. The breast and belly are a purplish red with pris- 

 matic reflections, varying from green to deep purple. The 

 lower part of the back, the rump, and tail coverts, are the 

 same colour as the head, barred with darker, and passing into 

 a purplish tinge on the coverts. The upper part of the back 

 and the wing coverts are deeper grey, but of the same mixed 

 and varying character. The quills are twenty-four in num- 

 ber : the first ten black, edged with white. The tail feathers 

 are blackish, and edged with bluish grey, but they have very 

 faint purple or bronze reflections. The tarsi and toes are 

 pale red, and the claws black. In general, however, the 

 colours pass so gently into each other, and reflect so many 

 hues with so slight shades of difference, that few birds are 

 more difficult to describe by colours ; and these can be seen 

 to perfection only upon the living bird when it turns itself 

 about in the sunshine. 



The notes of the ring-dove, for there are four of them, 

 two produced by modulation and two by difference of time, 

 are soft and plaintive, but not melancholy ; far superior to the 

 monotonous croak (it is nothing better) of the domesticated 

 pigeon. It of course varies with the season, but February is 

 the month in which its song begins ; and it gives the prefer- 

 ence to pine plantations, especially when they are not too 

 tall. As it repeats its notes in the early part of the season, 

 and is itself unseen while it does so, there is much interest 

 about it ; and the young ornithologists often listen much and 

 wander far in the coppice, and come home, after all, without 

 seeing the cushat. 



The nest is very rude, consisting of a few twigs laid care- 

 lessly together, and generally at a place where some of the 

 branches are nearly horizontal ; for as the bird has feet 

 adapted for walking as well as for perching, it can perch only 

 across the twig, and awkwardly if that twig incline much. 



