422 



RING DOVE. 



Wale. Syn. 2. t. 187— Ring Dove, Mont. Orn. Diet.— Bewick's Br. Birds, I. t. 

 p. 270.— Selby, pi. 56. fig. 1. p. 288. 



Provincial. — Quest. Wood Pigeon. Cushat. Cusha-Doo.* 



This species weighs about twenty ounces ; length eighteen inches. 

 The bill yellowish ; irides light yellow ; the head, coverts of the wings, 

 and scapulars, are of a deep bluish ash colour ; the neck and breast 

 vinaceous, beautifully glossed with green and copper colour, changeable 

 in different lights; on each side the neck is a large patch of glossy 

 white, which almost joins behind ; the back and tail ash-colour, the 

 latter black at the end ; vent and thighs white, tinged with ash-colour ; 

 the bastard wing almost black, behind which a few of the coverts are 

 white, forming a line down to the greater quills, which are dusky, edged 

 with white ; the legs are feathered much below the knee, which, with 

 the feet, are of a purplish-red. There is little or no distinction in the 

 plumage of the sexes ; but the female is not quite so large. 



This bird is indigenous to this island ; and it is doubtful whether 

 it migrates farther than from the northern to the southern parts. 



In winter they assemble in large flocks, and constantly resort to 

 woods to roost in the highest trees, especially those of the ash. The 

 great numbers that are seen together at this season, has given rise to 

 an opiniou that many come to us from the more northern parts of the 

 world ; but if we consider how dispersed all birds are in the breeding 

 season, it is easy to imagine, the number appears greater when locally 

 assembled. 



Early in the spring it begins to pair, at which time the male is seen 

 to fly in a singular manner, alternately rising and falling in the air. It 

 forms a nest of a few small sticks, loosely put together, through which 

 the eggs may frequently been seen; these are two in number, white, 

 and exactly oval, larger than those of the common pigeon. Like that 

 species, both sexes assist in making their nest : and the male some- 

 times relieves the female in sitting. The nest is sometimes placed 

 among brush-wood, and in hedges, or large hawthorn-bushes ; but more 

 frequently in the fork of a tree, or against the body, when surrounded 

 with ivy, and particularly in fir-trees. 



* The bird does not always confine itself to woods, for I knew a pair 

 breed, for several years, at the edge of a corn-field, in a large solitary 

 hawthorn overhanging the river Ayr, at Sorn, in Ayrshire, although 

 there was a wood of considerable extent on the opposite bank. This, 

 however, must be considered rather an exception to the general rule ; 

 for it is most generally found in large woods. In Darent Wood, in 

 Kent, I have observed half a dozen of wood-pigeon's nests, all within 



