388 CAROLINA PIGEON. 
The Brown Lark is six inches long, and ten inches and a half in 
extent; the upper parts, brown olive, touched with dusky; greater 
coverts and next superior row, lighter; bill, black, slender; nostril, 
prominent; chin and line over the eye, pale rufous; breast and belly, 
brownish ochre, the former spotted with black; tertials, black, the sec- 
ondaries brown, edged with lighter; tail, slightly forked, black; the 
two exterior feathers, marked largely with white ; legs, dark. purplish 
brown ; hind heel, Jong, and nearly streight; eye, dark hazel. ale 
and female nearly alike. Mr. Pennant says that one of these birds 
was shot near London. 
CAROLINA PIGEON, OR TURTLE DOVE.— COLUMBA 
CAROLINENSIS. — Fie. 178. 
Linn. Syst. 286. — Catesh. Car. i. 24. — Buff. ii. 557, Pl. enl. 175. — La tourterelle 
de la Caroline, Brisson, i. 110. — Peale’s Museum, No. 5088.— Turton, 479.— 
Arct. Zool. ii. No. 188. 
ECTOPISTES CAROLINENSIS. —Swatnson. 
Genus Ectopistes, Swain. N. Groups. Zool. Journ. No. xi. p. 362. — Columba Car- 
olinensis, Bonup. Synop. p. 119. — The Carolina Turtle-Dove, Aud. Orn. Biog. 
i. 91, pl. 17, male and female. 
Tuis is a favorite bird with all those who love to wander among our 
woods in spring, and listen to their varied harmony. They will there 
hear many a singular and sprightly performer, but none so mournful 
as this. The hopeless wo of settled sorrow, swelling the heart of 
female innocence itself, could not assume tones more sad, more tender 
and affecting. Its notes are four; the first is somewhat the highest, 
and preparatory, seeming to be uttered with an inspiration of the 
breath, as if the afflicted creature were just recovering its voice from 
‘the last convulsige sobs of distress; this is followed by three léng, 
deep, and mournful moanings, that no person of sensibility can listen 
to without sympathy. A pause of a few minutes ensues, and again 
the solemn voice of sorrow is renewed as before. This is generally 
‘heard in the deepest shaded parts of the woods, frequently about noon 
and towards the evening. 
There is, however, nothing of real distress in all this; quite the 
reverse. ‘I'he bird who utters it wantons by the side of his beloved 
partner, or invites her by his call to some favorite retired and shady 
retreat. It is the voice of love, of faithful connubial affection, for 
which the whole family of Doves are so celebrated; and, among them 
all, none more deservingly so than the species now before us. 
The Turtle Dove is a general inhabitant, in summer, of the United 
States, from Canada to Florida, and from the sea-coast to the Missis- 
sippi, and far to the westward. They are, however, partially migratory 
in the northern and middle states; and collect together in North and 
South Carol na, and their corresponding parallels, in great numbers, 
