44 MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS. 
through the kindness of a friend, who showed me 
several of these doves as something rather un- 
common, 
My old cock began early to show his character. 
I shall tell you in the accounts of the Necklace and 
the Picui doves how he bullied first one and then 
the other. Once he met his match, and that was 
in the cock Bar-shouldered dove, who was a 
perfect tyrant, though smaller than some of his 
opponents. My Aurita carried his perverseness so 
far as to wish to retain the monopoly of the trap 
cage (that I] had set in the aviary to catch some 
birds) for himself and his wife, refusing to allow 
the other doves to enter it—which, as he was not 
the bird I wanted to catch, was rather hard on me 
as well as on them. 
My first hen died in 1903; she had been in bad 
health for some time previously, and had diseased 
feet. In the same year I bought a second hen. 
She is one of the ugliest birds I have ever seen, 
for she must at some time (before I had her) have 
had a terrible injury to her head, for there is a 
great piece of bare skin above her eye that will 
never have any feathers on again whilst she lives, 
and it gives her face a rather drawn and distorted 
look. But I would not change her for the most 
beautiful hen bird you could give me, for she is 
the most faithful little nesting dove you could 
desire. She never tires of her eggs, and her chief 
idea about her babies is not to drive them early into 
the world—as is the idea of so many doves in bring- 
ing up their young ones—but to keep them by her 
as long as she can, brooding and caring for them 
whilst ever they need her. 
The consequence is that when the young 
Auritas really leave the nest they are able to fly 
well at once, being several weeks old, and never 
look behind them. I have one out now at the time 
I write, a perky little bird just like the old cock in 
colouring, except that as yet he has no bronze 
neck; his breast is a pale brownish shade, not the 
pretty pinkish tinge it will have later on, and the 
white spots in the wings are not so conspicuous, 
nor his chestnut quite so deep a shade; except for 
these few details the young bird is very like the 
old birds in colour, even to the markings on the 
wings and the black lines on the face, which are 
plainly showing. 
It was a pretty sight to see the hen on the nest, 
and a very black-eyed nestling peeping out, warm 
and comfortable, from her feathers. At last I 
think he got too large to be brooded, and then his 
mother sat by his side. 
Although Gosse’s book on Jamaica birds was 
written so many years ago, the little ways of the 
Aurita dove, that he so well describes, remain the 
same to this day. He notes how they have a habit 
of “jerking the head by quickly shortening and 
then lengthening the neck, immediately and invari- 
ably followed by a flirt upward of the tail; this 
action my captives were perpetually performing at 
intervals of a few seconds when not walking.” 
You would be amused to see even my young one 
just out jerking his little tail in a most approved 
and upgrown fashion; he might have been prac- 
tising it ever since he left the shell. 
Another point about the Aurita which Gosse also 
notes is its restless ways, but it should be noted 
his doves were only kept in a cage, and this makes 
a world of difference. He says the birds walked 
rapidly about the cage floor all day long, invariably 
walking over each other rather than deviate from 
their course. 1 have had several private consign- 
ments of doves sent me in long crates from 
Jamaica, and find this restless way of birds (even 
trampling over each other) is very general; but 
I think if Gosse had loosed his birds in an aviary 
he would have found them behave differently. I 
put down this habit of wandering to two causes— 
a desire to find a way of escape, and a great dread 
of being inspected by human beings at too close 
quarters. 
The Aurita has a way of sobbing and moaning 
when it is caught that is most curious to hear; it 
is like a child or animal in distress. It does this 
whilst held in the hand, and any one might think 
who heard it that the bird was being put to the 
greatest torture. I only know of one or two other 
kinds of doves who have this trait, and none of 
them are so noisy in their imaginary distress as the 
Aurita. 
This dove was kept at the Zoo in 1873. It has 
often been bred and frequently imported; the price 
is about 16/- a pair. It is very hardy and stands 
the cold well. Pees 
WHITE-WINGED ZENAIDA DOVE. 
(Meclopelia Leucoptera). 
Habitat.—Southern border of the United States, 
from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Lower 
California, southward to Costa Rica and the West 
Indies. 
Length.--About 11 inches. 
tioned and shapely. 
Colouring.—.\ soft drab, and whitish on the 
under-parts, the long quill feathers in the wings 
dark brownish black; when the wing is in repose 
a very decided band of white runs along it, from 
which the bird evidently derives its name. On 
the neck is a lovely gold and purple sheen, very 
beautiful when seen in the sunlight. Below the 
ear is a small slanting black mark. The eyes are 
bright orange surrounded by a patch of sky-blue 
skin, which greatly adds to the bird’s beauty. The 
Shape, well propor- 
