360 THE RINGDOVE. 



ments are remarkably periodical. In mild winters, or, more properly 

 speaking, in winters of short continuance, it makes its first appear- 

 ance on the island where my house stands early in February. This 

 year it came, for the first time, on the second of the month, and 

 cooed in full note. From this period it may be seen here every day 

 till October, either in the sycamore trees, or in the ivy on the old 

 ruined tower, or on the lawn, picking up the tender sprouts of grass. 

 Provided you approach with " cautious step and slow," you may get 

 within seven yards of different pairs of these birds ; and when the 

 window-sash is down, they will come within a few paces of the place 

 where you are standing, and allow you to gaze at them for any length 

 of time. After the first week in October, they take their final leave 

 of my island for the winter, and never, by any chance, pay us even 

 one single solitary visit till February sets in, though they may be seen 

 every day in congregated numbers in other parts of the park, where 

 they roost in the elm and fir trees. During the winter months they 

 are exceedingly shy and timorous, seeking for safety in lofty flight 

 the moment they see you approach. They become quite silent 

 towards the last week in October, and their notes are reduced to 

 half their number for some days before they cease to coo entirely. 

 At this period they discontinue those graceful risings and sinkings in 

 the air, in which they appear to so much advantage during the whole 

 of the breeding season. 



Thus we have a bird which, during the course of the year, at one 

 time approaches the haunts of man with wonderful assurance, and 

 at another shuns them with a timidity equally astonishing. I speak 

 only of its diurnal movements; for, at the close of day, both in 

 winter and in summer, when not molested, this bird will come near 

 to our out-buildings, and seek a roosting-place in the trees which 

 surround them. This peculiarity of the ringdove in approaching so 

 near to our mansions during the day in the breeding season, and 

 then losing all confidence in us, as soon as incubation ceases, is not 

 a mere accidental trait of one or two particular birds, whose usual 

 habits may have been changed, either by want of food, or by pro- 

 tection offered; but it is inherent in the whole species, when the 

 lird is allowed by man to follow Nature's unerring mandates. 



I know of no British bird which has the colour of its plumage 



