THE DOVE. 151 



object of his adoration and inflating his speckled neck 

 as h^ gives forth his rather harsh and unmelodioua 

 coo. For, as a cooer, he does not compare 

 it all favourably with another Dove very familiar 

 in Calcutta, the domestic fawn-coloured or white 

 Dove, which ip so well-known as a cage-bird, although 

 its real origin and home seem to be still doubtful. 

 The spotted Dove, however, has few rivals among 

 the Turtle-doves in the matter of plumage, being 

 most elegantly spbtted with pinkish fawn on a drab 

 ground, and boasting a black tippet spotted with 

 white as a neck ornament. As is usual with Doves, 

 the male and female are equally pretty, but the 

 young birds have no tippet-marking at first, and only 

 a dingy indication of the pretty speckling on the back, 

 which will appear later. The eggs whence the twin 

 offspring are disclosed are white, as in all Doves, and 

 deposited on a flimsy collection of twigs, placed, 

 doubtlessj in some secure retreat : for, in spite of 

 the numbers of doves to be seen about suitable 

 compounds, their nests are not by any means common 

 objects, and, considering the proverbial helplessness of 

 "two strength less doves," it is really very creditable 

 to the pretty pairs that they bring off so miany 

 young. Love, indeed, supplies much to these weak 

 creatures, giving them'courage not only to fight each 

 other with their feeble bills and unarmed wings, but 



