THE DOVE. 153 



■feeble way ; and he can hardly be called patient, in 

 -consideration of the way in which a new-caught bird 

 will knock itself about in captivity ; although the 

 species can be so far reconciled to that condition as 

 -to propagate itself therein, as happened some years 

 ago in the London Zoological Gardens. As to 

 humility, that can hardly be assigned as a 

 conspicuous quality of birds so given to bloating and 

 bowing and scraping as are the Doves. They are all, 

 taken as a family, given to this form of ostentation ; 

 but the turtle group have also a very pretty form of 

 showing off which is very characteristic of them. 

 This consists in the bird towering up in the air for a 

 short distance, and then sailing downward with 

 outspread tail, so as to show off the light and 

 dark marking of the under-surface thereof to the 

 fair spectator below. 



I have seen this done by several wild species, and 

 also by a tame bird, to which I used occasionally 

 to allow a little liberty ; and this shows the persistence 

 of the instinct, for the quarters in which such tame 

 Doves are usually kept are not so spacious as to 

 afford facilities for the performance. But nothing 

 is more striking than the fidelity with which 

 individuals of a species, or various naturally allied 

 species will reproduce the same attitudes in courtship, 

 vshowing the essentially artless and instinctive nature 



