136 
RING PIGEON, OR CUSHAT. 
60 great is their vigilance, that it is almost impossi- 
ble, by any device, to get within gun-shot. In the 
evening they retire to the woods to roost, preferring 
those of the fir tribe and the ash to any other, and 
in those nocturnal retreats great slaughter is some- 
times committed, by waiting in concealment their 
arrival, which regularly takes place immediately after 
sunset. 
As we have previously remarked, the first mild 
weather in February produces an immediate effect 
upon these congregated pigeons, and we may almost 
calculate to a day when their cooing and plaintive 
murmurs will again be heard in their wonted sum- 
mer haunts. The flocks are now seen daily to de- 
crease in magnitude, and in a short lime every wood 
and copse becomes peopled with the numerous pairs 
of this lovely bird. The male soon after commences 
a flight peculiar to the season of courtship and love, 
this is a rising and falling in the air, by alternate 
movements, in which flight, and when at the great- 
est elevation, the upper sui'faces of the wings are 
brought so forcibly into contact, as to be heard at a 
considerable distance. Nidification soon follows this 
well-known signal, and by the end of April the young 
in many instances are fully fledged, and ready to quit 
the nest. Few, however, of the early brood, com- 
paratively speaking, attain maturity, as the eggs at 
this season, from the naked state of the woods, are 
easily discovered by the prying eye and inquisitr. e 
