RING DOVE. 281 



like the Pigeons in general, are birds of great power of 

 flight; and this species may be recognized when on the 

 wing almost as far off as any bird I am acquainted with. 



Considerable pains have been taken by different indivi- 

 duals to domesticate this species, and the eggs are frequently 

 obtained and placed under other Pigeons ; but it generally 

 happens that as soon as the young birds are able to fly, and 

 have learned to feed themselves, they take their departure 

 for more natural haunts. 



M. Vieillot says that they have not been able to succeed 



j j 



in France in inducing this bird to breed in confinement, 

 though this secret was known to the ancients. Several per- 

 sons have failed in this country ; but, on the other hand, 

 some have succeeded. Mr. Thomas Allis, of York, has 

 been successful for the two or three last seasons following. 

 These birds have bred in the aviary of the Earl of Derby at 

 Knowsley ; and two or three summers since, a pair of these 

 birds in the Dove-house at the Gardens of the Zoological 

 Society in the Regents Park, built a nest, and produced 

 two eggs ; but, unfortunately, during the period of incuba- 

 tion, in which the male assisted, the eggs were broken by 

 some of the numerous other birds, most of them of the same 

 genus, with which they were confined. 



This species is found as far south as the latitude of 

 Madeira, and goes eastward to Sicily and Crete, and as far 

 northward in summer as the southern parts of Siberia and 

 Russia. It is found also in summer in Denmark and Swe- 

 den, but not in Norway or Lapland. 



The beak is reddish orange ; the soft parts about the 

 nostrils almost white ; irides straw yellow ; head and upper 

 part of the neck bluish grey ; the feathers on the sides of 

 the neck tipped with white, forming parts of four or five 

 oblique rings ; back, scapulars, both sets of wing-coverts 



