146 



THE RINGDOVE. 



inherent and unalterable in them, and, of course, 

 are not to be repressed or changed. At the inter- 

 esting period of incubation, Nature knows no dis- 

 tinction betwixt the cooing of the dove and the 

 cackling of the goose. Both sounds express the 

 same emotions, and are perfectly understood by the 

 parties. They have only one plain and obvious 

 meaning. Audubon's description of his love-sick 

 turtle-dove, which listened with delight to her mate's 

 " assurances of devoted affection," and was " still 

 coy and undetermined, and seemed fearful of the 

 truth of her lover," and, " virgin-like, resolved to 

 put his sincerity to the test," is lovesome nonsense, 

 as far as regards the feathered tribe ; and is a bur- 

 lesque upon the undeviating tenor of Nature s course. 

 Those who approve of such absurd aberrations from 

 the line of instinct allotted to birds would do well 

 to confine their studies to the romances on their 

 drawingroom tables. Let us hope that better days 

 are in store for ornithology; and that when the 

 ardent novice shall turn over the pages which may 

 be really intended for his improvement in this fas- 

 cinating study, he will find their contents in unison 

 with what he will observe afterwards in Nature's 

 boundless range. 



If size and beauty give a claim to priority, the 

 ringdove will hold the first place in the scanty 

 catalogue of the wild pigeons of Europe. It stays 

 with us in Yorkshire the whole of the year ; and, in 

 the winter months, it resorts chiefly to the turnip 

 fields for sustenance, where it feeds voraciously on 

 the leaves, and not on the body, of the turnip. The 



