Wood-Pigeons. 



93 



RING DOVE OR WOOD-PIGEON. 



soft retirement and secrecy, that one could not help 

 falling into a Robinson-Crusoe mood a kind of middle 

 mood between primitive ease and restful indifferency, 

 and the curiosity bred of civilisation and science, which 

 could not be set aside. The wood-doves would some- 

 times descend and sit- 

 on the hut close above 

 me, and talk to each 

 other in that confiding 

 full-hearted goo-goo- 

 gooing language of 

 theirs, and shed a soft 

 feather or two that 

 would cling to the dry 

 wood for days; the 

 jays would intrude 

 the mischief-makers 

 that they are chattering and scolding near by, as if, 

 like interfering gossips and scandal-loving neighbours, 

 they could not let a little love-affair pass without an 

 unseemly interruption and rude comment on it, and 

 many derogatory remarks ; the rooks busy in their 

 nests would startle the silence with a caw-caw to a 

 companion, intimating something still to be attended 

 to ; and a solitary bee, attracted by one knows not 

 what, would come boldly bumming into the shadowy 

 shelter and settle, apparently seeking for something, 

 one could not guess what, and show no hurry to go 

 away either. Slouching, black, beady-eyed rats have 

 sometimes peered in, but with that quickness of sense 

 characteristic of them, soon smelt the presence of some- 

 thing unusual, and were off; and the weasel, too, with 

 its twining gliding walk (as though it had a snake for 

 a spinal cord, which, perhaps, it has), and with pink 



