THE BARBARY TURTLE DOVE. 



49 



consider that if tiiey keep Barbary doves the poor 

 birds are certain to bring" ill-luck to them. I do 

 not know from what cause the suspicion arises, 

 but I have met with it once or twice. 



The affection towards each other between a pair 

 of these doves is very great, though with others of 

 his tribe the cock Barbary is apt to be quarrelsome, 

 especially when nesting. He does not fight so 

 much in the wing-striking manner usual in most 

 dove battles, but charges the enemy in a series of 

 hops, with lowered head, and a coo that is unmis- 

 takably a war-cr}-, and that as a rule strikes terror 

 into the heart of his opponent. Barbary doves will 

 get absurdly tame ; they will let j-ou handle them 

 and change their eggs, and will yet go on sitting 

 as if it was all part of the day's work. I have 

 read of one bird that formed such an attachment 

 to an old lady that it would regularly every day 

 sit on a chair close to hers, and each afternoon both 

 of them would take a nap. One day when the old 

 lady awoke the bird was not on its chair, but 

 nestling on her head in the folds of her cap, and 

 was most reluctant to be removed, the cause being 

 discovered when it was found the dove had laid 

 an egg in what it evidently thought a very pretty 

 nesting site. 



I have noticed before that birds have curious 

 ideas on this subject. We had a little pair of 

 Cordon Bleus that were often let out for a fly in 

 the room, and they were never tired of inspecting 

 one of the gas globes and considering its possibility 

 as a very suitable place for a nest. 



Barbary doves are known to live to a great age. 

 A gentleman at Brighton, in 1897, had then living 

 a cock bird that he had had for 23 years, and that 

 was adult when he first had it. Contrar}' to most 

 of his kind, this particular dove was a confirmed 

 old bachelor and refused all offers of a wife. 



Once I had a flight of over 30 Barbary doves 

 loose in the garden. I believe they were all bred 

 from one pair, and they used to roost summer and 

 winter in some large hawthorn trees near the 

 house, quite despising a dovecote near by, save for 

 one single nest built in it. Twice a day, regularly 

 as clockwork, the birds would assemble at this 

 place to be fed. They all began to draw together 

 from different quarters as the feeding time drew 

 near, and being very punctual, if the proper time 

 came and their meal was a few minutes late, they 

 would fly down to the orchard, where they knew 

 they would probably find my bird-man working, 

 to remind him, and escort him back in triumph 

 to the feeding-place. The moment his steps 

 tended in that direction the doves would leave the 

 large Blenheim Orange apple-tree where they had 

 been waiting and form a joyous advance-guard 

 leading the wav to the house. 



After some time my little flock of doves began 

 to decrease, till only one solitary bird was left. I 

 fancy many were shot, as they were fond of doing 

 mischief in some allotment gardens not far away ; 

 others were stolen, or killed by cats. We had one 

 tragic instance from the latter cause. A pair of 

 the Barbarys were nesting high up in the roosting 

 tree during the winter — for these doves will 

 nest all the j'ear round — and the old cock, not 

 satisfied with one wife, went off after another. A 

 just retribution followed, the cock and the new hen 

 being both killed by a cat the same night. I was 

 ver)- interested to know what the widowed hen 

 would do, for in doves the parent birds divide the 

 duties of sitting, the cock bird sitting on the eggs 

 by da)', the hen at night. The love of birds for 

 their eggs or young is ver}' strong, and this hen 

 sat bravely on through the cold and snow, and 

 ended in bringing off a fine young one. 



Every spring I used to find deserted young doves 

 in the garden, and a great trouble they were to 

 me, for it is no use trj'ing to get them adopted by 

 other birds, for when the poor young nestlings 

 run to a stranger for food their eagerness is only 

 met by indifference or possibly blows. So like 

 Pip in "Great Expectations" 1 had no course left 

 but to try and bring them up "by hand," a not 

 too pleasant task, and one that is not altogether 

 satisfactory in the case of young foreign doves less 

 hardy than Barbarys. These young doves are 

 cream in colour, but have dark e3'es (which gradu- 

 ally change to orange-red as they grow older), 

 their beaks, feet, and legs are pale flesh-colour, 

 and they at first have no black collar. 



Barbarys are not worth breeding from a financial 

 point of view; there is little demand for them, and 

 you may think yourself fortunate if 3'ou can get 2/- 

 for a pair. I once bred some beautiful hybrids 

 between a cock British Turtle-dove {Columha 

 tiirtur) and a hen Barbary, and after I had parted 

 with one of these hybrids it bred again with 

 another hybrid, a Barbary Necklace. I have only 

 one stock pair of Barbarys now, and these I keep 

 for foster parents, for sitting on the eggs of rarer 

 doves that perhaps are bad sitters. Not that I 

 have ever had much success from this plan, but 

 it is pleasant to feel you have the birds there if an 

 occasion should arise, for if you had not got them 

 and failed \'Ou would be sure to think the failure 

 was due to their absence. 



If they were rarer one should value Barbary 

 doves more, but to a true bird lover mere rarity 

 does not matter, and these doves are so pretty and 

 confiding — flying readily on )'Our hand for crumbs 

 of biscuit, and letting you stroke them — that they 

 are a pleasure to keep as pets. 



When her late Gracious Majesty Queen "Victoria 



E 



