TUETLE DOVE. 



TURTUR COMMUNIS, Selby. 



Turtur communis, Selby, Nat. Libr., Ornith. v. pp. 153, 171 



(1835) ; Yarr. ed. 4, iii. p. 21. 

 Columba turtur, Naum. vi. p. 233 ; Macg. i. p. 291 ; 



Hewitson, i. p. 275. 

 Turtur vulgaris, Dresser, vii. p. 39. 



Tourterelle, French j Turtel-taube, German ; Tortola, 

 Spanish. 



This species has for many years been extending its 

 range to the northward in our Islands, and is now a 

 well-known and common summer visitor to many 

 English districts in which it was virtually unknown 

 before the middle of the present century. I have met 

 with it in all of the counties south of the Thames that I 

 have visited, and, so far as my recollection serves me, in 

 nearly all of those between that river and the Trent, but 

 I have very little acquaintance with the western midlands. 

 With us in Northamptonshire the Turtle Dove generally 

 arrives in considerable numbers during the first ten 

 days of May, and soon makes its presence known by its 

 peculiar guttural note, very distinct from that of the 

 other British members of the Dove family. The nest is 



