1860 Jenyns Natural History. 



White*), which induces them to " begin many edifices, and leave them unfinished. 

 In the present instance, I suspect they may be the first broods but lately fledged, 

 whose instinct begins to operate and show itself in this manner before it is wanted." 

 —p. 161. 



Singular Anecdote of a Ring -Dove. — " A singular circumstance occurred to my 

 nephew one day last July (1845). As he was walking in the fir-plantations at Bot- 

 tisham Hall, a ring-dove fell suddenly to the ground a short distance from him, as if 

 wounded. On going up to it and securing it, he found it swarming with individuals 

 of some species of fly, which, by his description, I have no doubt was a species 

 of Ornithoniyia, and which appear to have collected upon the bird in such numbers as 

 quite to overpower it. It was a young bird of the year, but fully fledged, and had not 

 fallen from any nest; neither did it appear to have sustained any injury in other 

 ways." — p. 165. 



The Collared or African Turtle.^ — " The unfledged young of all the pigeon tribe 

 are fed, as is well known, from the macerated contents of the crop of the parent birds, 

 mixed with a curdy secretion of the crop itself. I am often much amused in watching 

 the way in which this is effected in the instance of the collared or African turtle, of 

 which I have several individuals in confinement. The old bird opening its beak to 

 the full extent, the young plunges its own almost, as it were, down the throat of its 

 parent, whose efforts to regurgitate the required food into the mouth of its offspring 

 are distinctly visible. But what particularly takes my attention is the persevering and 

 often fruitless endeavour made by the young to induce the parent to open its mouth 

 for this purpose. This is especially the case when the young are now nearly 

 fully fledged, and partially able to feed themselves ; and when, perhaps, the usual se- 

 cretions of the parent's crop are beginning to fail. Under such circumstances, they 

 will often chase the old birds round the cage, and again and again present themselves 

 before their face, as often as they turn away from their solicitations : at the same time 

 they keep up a continual flapping with their wings, utter a plaintive whining note, and 

 peck at the sides of their parents' bill, trying every stratagem to make them yield to 

 their entreaties. The old birds, however, as if conscious that there was no supply, or 

 that it was no longer needed, obstinately refuse to pay any regard to the demands 

 made upon them ; or they are not prevailed upon till after a long time, and till wearied, 

 as it were, with the perpetual teazings of their offspring. The difficulty experienced 

 by this last in effecting its object is greater as it advances to the age at which it is 

 capable of taking care of itself. Probably the secretion in the parent's crop is de- 

 pendent upon a certain degree of excitement caused by maternal affection ; and, after 

 a time, when this excitement wears off, by reason of the increasing age of the young 

 bird, it is with difficulty elaborated. At length it ceases altogether ; yet the habit of 

 the young coming to its parent to be fed is kept up for a while, in like manner as we 

 see nearly full-grown kittens and puppies still occasionally pulling at their mother's 

 teats after they are dry. The scene above described may, % at any time, be witnessed by 

 throwing down a little hemp-seed into the cage where the parent and young birds are, 

 when, as soon as ever the former begin to feed, the latter will be immediately at them 

 importuning for a share." — p. 168. 



* Nat. Hist, of Selborne, Lett. XVI. to D. Barrington. 

 f C. risoria, Auct. 



