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THE TURTLE DOVE. 

 (Turtur communis.) 



THE Turtle Dove has a pretty, dainty walk, an 

 uncommonly rapid flight, and is altogether a beautiful 

 pleasant cleanly bird. The pairs are devoted to each 

 other.. Their cooing, " turr, turr," is pleasing, gentle, 

 and rich. It is a harmonious sound which makes a 

 soothing impression on the mind. It is no wonder that, 

 from its whole nature, the Turtle Dove has been chosen 

 as the symbol of faithful love. Popular sentiment is 

 shown in the widespread belief, that if his mate is taken 

 from him, the male bird dies of grief or that in sorrow 

 for his loss he never again sits on a green bough. The 

 Turtle Dove loves the border of a wood, or the trees, and 

 rows of poplars that skirt a corn-field. It likes to be 

 near clear water to which the birds come in flocks to 

 drink. Its food consists almost entirely of seeds, chiefly 

 those of weeds. That is why this bird is so useful to 

 the farmer. It does, indeed, sometimes take toll of the 

 grains, in the corn-field, when they have not been 

 properly covered by the harrow. Then, indeed, the 

 Doves so fill their crops, that bare places do not fail to 

 appear on the ground. But this bad behaviour lasts 

 only for a short time ; besides it is not very bad, for they 

 eat chiefly the superfluous grains. It is quite different 

 with regard to the seeds of weeds, which they destroy the 

 whole summer through in great quantities. A student 

 of bird-lore once opened the crop of a Dove in mid- 

 summer, and found in it 1942 seeds, of which all but 

 one were the seeds of the poisonous willow-leaved wolfs- 

 milk the one exception being also the seed of a noxious 



