92 CAROLINA TURTLE DOVE. 



a large circle, and sailing smoothly with wings and tail expanded, until 

 in this manner he alights on the tree where his mate is, or on one very near 

 it. These manoeuvres are frequently repeated during the days of incuba^ 

 lion, and occasionally when the male bird is courting the female. No 

 sooner do they alight than they jerk out their tail in a very graceful man- 

 ner, and balance their neck and head. Their migrations are not so ex- 

 tensive as those of the Wild Pigeon (Culumha migratoria) ; nor are they 

 performed in such numbers, two hundred and fifty or three hundred 

 doves together being considered a large flock. 



On the ground, along the fences, or on the branches of trees, the 

 Carolina Turtle walks with great ease and grace, frequently jerking its 

 tail. It is able to run with some swiftness when searching for food in 

 places where it is scarce. It seldom bathes, but drinks by swallowing 

 the water in long draughts, with the biU deeply immersed, frequently up 

 to the eyes. 



They breed in every portion of the United States tliat I have visited, 

 and according to the temperature of different locahties, rear either one or 

 two broods in the season. In Louisiana, they lay eggs early in April, 

 and sometimes in the month of March, and have there two broods. In 

 the State of Connecticut, they seldom begin to lay before the middle of 

 May, and as seldom have more than one brood. On the borders of Lake 

 Superior, they are still later. They lay two eggs of a pure white colour, 

 and having some degree of translucency. They make their nest in any 

 kind of tree, on horizontal branches or twigs. It is formed of a few dry 

 sticks, so loosely put together as to appear hardly sufficient to keep the 

 eggs or young from falling. 



The roosting places which the Carolina Turtles prefer are among the 

 long grasses found growing in abandoned fields, at the foot of dry stalks 

 of maize, or on the edges of meadows, although they occasionally resort to 

 the dead foliage of trees, as well as that of different species of evergreens. 

 But in all these places they rise and fly at the approach of man, however 

 dark the night may be, which proves that the power of sight which they 

 then possess is very great. They seldom place themselves very near each 

 other when roosting on the ground, but sometimes the individuals of a 

 flock appear diffused pretty equally over a whole field. In this particu- 

 lar, they greatly differ from our Common Wild Pigeon, which settles in 

 compact masses on the limbs of trees during the night. The Doves, how- 

 ever, like the Pigeons, are fond of returning to the same roosting grounds 



