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 
