THE CAROLINA TURTLE-DOVE. 37 



the tree where his mate is, or on one very near it. These manoeuvres are 

 frequently repeated during the days of incubation, and occasionally when 

 the male bird is courting the female. No sooner do they alight than they 

 jerk out their tail in a very graceful manner, and balance their neck and 

 head. Their migrations are not so extensive as those of the Wild Pigeon 

 (Ectopistes migrator ia J ; nor are they performed in such numbers, two 

 hundred and fifty or three hundred Doves together being considered a large 

 flock. 



On the ground, along the fences, or on the branches of trees, the Carolina 

 Turtle walks with great ease and grace, frequently jerking its tail. It is 

 able to run with some swiftness when searching for food in places where it 

 is scarce. It seldom bathes, but drinks by swallowing the water in long 

 draughts, with the bill deeply immersed, frequently up to the eyes. 



They breed in every portion of the United States that I have visited, and 

 according to the temperature of different localities, rear either one or two 

 broods in the season. In Louisiana, they lay eggs early in April, and 

 sometimes in the month of March, and have there two broods. In the 

 State of Connecticut, they seldom begin to lay before the middle of Ma}^, 

 and as seldom have more than one brood. On the borders of Lake Superior, 

 they are still later. They lay two eggs of a pure white colour, and having 

 some degree of translucency. They make their nest in any kind of tree, on 

 horizontal branches or twigs. It is formed of a few dry sticks, so loosely 

 put together as to appear hardly sufficient to keep the eggs or young from 

 falling. 



The roosting places which the Carolina Turtles prefer are among the long 

 grasses found growing in abandoned fields, at the foot of dry stalks of maize, 

 or on the edges of meadows, although they occasionally resort to the dead 

 foliage of trees, as well as that of different species of evergreens. But in all 

 these places they rise and fly at the approach of man, however dark the 

 night may be, which proves that the power of sight which they then possess 

 is very great. They seldom place themselves very near each other when 

 roosting on the ground, but sometimes the individuals of a flock appear 

 diffused pretty equally over a whole field. In this particular, they greatly 

 differ from our Common Wild Pigeon, which settles in compact masses on 

 the limbs of trees during the night. The Doves, however, like the Pigeons, 

 are fond of returning to the same roosting grounds from considerable 

 distances. A few individuals sometimes mix with the Wild Pigeons, as do 

 the latter sometimes with the Doves. 



The Turtle-Dove may with propriety be considered more as a gleaner 

 than as a reaper of the husbandman's fields, scarcely ever committing any 

 greater depredation than the picking up a few grains in seed-time, after 



Vol. V. 6 



