RING DOVE. 4*21 



ticularly in Scotland and the north of England, as well as in some parts 

 of Wales, on Dartmoor in Devonshire, and near the Land's End in 

 Cornwall. *Selby says they arrive in this country in the spring-, and 

 immediately resort to the mountainous parts of England and Scotland, 

 preferring those of a more stony and barren aspect.* We have also re- 

 ceived it from the mountainous parts of Ireland. It is said to be found 

 in many parts of the old continent, both in the warmer as well as colder 

 regions ; also in Africa and Asia ; and in all these places it is noticed 

 as migratory. 



The nest is generally placed on the ground, under some small bush, 

 and formed like that of a blackbird. * Those which I have seen in the 

 wild track of mountainous country behind Carntable, in Ayrshire, 

 were placed in the side of heathy banks, and never under bushes ; it is 

 there called Stirlin by the shepherds.* The eggs, in number, size, and 

 colour, are much like those of the blackbird. It is rarely that more than 

 one pair are seen near the same spot in the breeding season. They 

 are very clamorous when disturbed, especially when they have young. 

 Their food is snails, insects, and berries, particularly those of the 

 juniper. 



The young birds, before the white on the breast appears, have been 

 considered as a different species, under the name of rock-ouzel ; and, in 

 the catalogue of Dorset birds, we are told these birds appear in Port- 

 land in their spring and autumnal nights, and are there called Michael- 

 mas Blackbirds. 



* " Its song," says Selby, " which it utters perched on the top of some 

 stone or the summit of a rock, is confined to a few clear and powerful 

 notes, not unlike those of the missel thrush. Like most of its tribe," 

 he adds, " it is of a shy disposition, and does not readily admit of a near 

 approach, except during the period when its nest contains unfledged 

 young ; at which time it endeavours to avert the attention of intruders 

 by loud cries and feigned gestures."* About the end of October it quits 

 its mountainous haunts for the warmer regions of France and Germany, 

 where it passes the winter. 



RING DOVE (Columba palumbus, Linnaeus.) 



♦Columba Palumbus, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 282. sp. 19. — Fauna Suec. No. 208.— Gmel. 



Syst. 1. p. 796. sp. 19.— Lath. lnd. Orn. 2. p. 601. sp. 32 Bviss. 1. p. 89. 6. 



— Flem. Br. Anim. p. 47.— Palumbus torquatus, Rail, Syn. p. 62. A. 9. — Will. 

 p. 135. t. 35 — Le Pigeon Ramier, Buff. Ois. 2. p. 531. t. 24.— Ib. pi. Enl. 316. 

 — Temm. Pig. et Gall. 1. p. 78.— Ib. fol. pi. 2. — Colombe Ramier, Temm. Man. 

 d'Orn. 2. p. 444. — Ringel Taube, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 3. p. 949. — Meyer, 

 Tasscbenb. Deut. 1. p. 286. — Frisch, Vog. t. 138.— Ring Duif, Sepp. Nederl. 



Vog. 1. t. p. 9 Ring Pigeon, Br. Zool. 1. No. 102.— Arct. Zool. 2. p. 329. B.. 



—Will. ( Angl.) p. 185. t. 35.— Lath. Syn. 4. p. 635. 29.— lb. Supp. p. 198 — 

 Lewin's Br. Birds, 4. t. 129.— Albin, 11. t. 46'.— Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 7.— 



