Birds. 663 



I have never had another ringdove so thoroughly tame as this one, 

 though I have succeeded in familiarizing several ; the fact is, I never 

 took so much trouble and pains with any other. And with respect to 

 the individual in question, my firm impression is, that had I stayed at 

 home and continued my attentions to him, he would have remained 

 with me until the breeding season ; at the arrival of which time he 

 might probably have left me : but even then, I should have expected 

 him to pay me frequent visits for food ; and most likely to have nest- 

 ed in the immediate vicinity of the house. 



It is well known that few birds are wilder and more distrustful than 

 the ringdove in autumn and winter ; but that at the approach of spring 

 they throw off much of their wildness, and become comparatively fa- 

 miliar and confiding. And it appears to me somewhat remarkable, 

 that the strongest case of this change in their habits I ever heard of, 

 has since occurred in the garden about which my tame ringdove spent 

 his time. A pair of these birds nested in a shrub about twenty yards 

 from the front of the house. Under the shrub was placed a garden- 

 chair, which was usually occupied several hours in the day. Heading 

 aloud was frequently resorted to by the parties occupying the chair ; 

 and three or four children were pursuing their sports all round, and, 

 like other children, did not always pursue them in " solemn silence." 

 But this was not all. The nest was not six feet from the ground; and 

 visitors were often introduced to the sitting bird; who, seeming to care 

 nothing for the close approximation of human eyes to her own, sat on 

 in spite of all, and in due time hatched. This regardlessness of the 

 eye of man has always seemed to me very strange. Look stedfastly 

 at your favourite dog, and he turns away his eye in apparent uneasi- 

 ness, and w r ill not look at you, even though you call him, while he 

 suspects you are still gazing at him. The wild-fowl shooter will tell 

 you to be careful not to look at the approaching flight of wild ducks ; 

 for they will " see your eye," and turn another way. Walk under the 

 tree in your garden where the ringdove is sitting ; take no notice of 

 her and she will take none of you. Come back again, and look sted- 

 fastly at her as you pass, and in nineteen cases out of twenty she will 

 fly off. Yet in the case I am describing, the visitor's eye was often 

 not more than two feet from the bird, and unless it was long fixed up- 

 on her, she never moved. During the time of incubation, the male — 

 or, that bird which was not sitting — (for I believe the male relieves the 

 female for a space of seven or eight hours every day, — the domestic 

 pigeon certainly does) was generally to be seen sitting in an ash tree 

 at the bottom of the garden. A similar instance of extraordinary con- 



