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oy the ground than among trees. I sometimes met with it in

small flocks, but more often in pairs or singly. It runs over the

ground with a short bobbing motion of the tail, and while

feeding is so remarkably tame as almost to admit of its being

taken up by the hand ; and if forced to take wing, it merely flies

to the nearest trees, and there remains motionless among the

branches until it again descends to the ground. I not un-

frequently observed it close to the open doors of the huts of the

stock-keepers of the interior, who, from its being so continually

before them, regard it with little interest. The nest is a frail

but beautiful structure formed of the stalks of a few flowering

grasses, crossed and interwoven after the manner of the other

Pigeons. It utters a rather singular note which at times very

much resembles the distant crowing of a cock. The eggs are

white and two in number, eleven-sixteenths of an inch long by

seven-sixteenths broad. The sexes, although bearing a general

resemblance to each other, may be readily distinguished by the

smaller size of the female, by the browner hue of her wing

feathers, and by the spotting of their upper surface not being so

numerous or so regular as in the male.”


These descriptions are no doubt accurate ones of the

habits of the Diamond Dove in its native wilds. I will supple¬

ment them with my own experience of the Dove in captivity.

Its appearance is best shown by the illustration. The head and

breast are French grey or lavender ; the tint of the back and

wings is very peculiar, as if an olivaceous wash were put over

the under lilac colour and were then studded w T ith little diamonds.

The back and wings of the hen are of a decidedly darker hue

than those of the cock, almost umber, and the diamond-like

marks are fewer and fainter. The under-parts and under-side

of the tail of both sexes are of a beautiful pearl-gre3U Certainly

the beauty of Doves is seen from below as well as from above,

for the under-tints of their tails are almost universally soft and

lovely. The little flesh-coloured feet of the Diamond Dove are

also peculiarly pretty.


Diamond Doves have bred in captivit)'. I have not ui} r self

been fortunate enough to rear any, but rather from having too

many Doves in my aviaries than from the difficulty of inducing

them to breed. For the small Doves I find very shallow baskets,

either securely fixed in bushes or on wooden brackets, are the

best nesting-places; and for nesting-stuff I give the withered

green of bulbs or of rock-plants. It is usually soft and pliant,

and Nature provides it just when the Doves should nest. They



