and in siumner only, as it is with us. Mr. Fellowes met with it in Asia Minor; Mr. Strickland in Persia; 
Lieut. Sperling has seen it in abundance in Syria, Rhodes, Candia, the Ionian Islands, and Greece ; Mr. Salvin 
found it in the Eastern Atlas ; Loche states that it frequents the whole of Algeria ; and we learn from the 
Rev. H. B. Tristram’s interesting “Notes on the Ornithology of Palestine” that, “of the three species of 
Turtledoves inhabiting that country, the present one is by far the most abundant, but only in spring and 
summer, returning about the end of March and overspreading every part of the country, highland and low- 
land alike.” In his valuable little work, ‘ On the Natural History of the Bible,’ he says ; — “ But the Turtle- 
dove to which, no doubt, the various Scriptural passages refer is our own {Turtur auritus). Its return in 
spring is one of the most marked epochs in the ornithological calendar. ‘ The Turtle and the Crane and 
the Swallow observe the time of their coming.’ ‘ For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; the 
flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the Turtle is heard 
in our land.’ Search the glades and valleys, even by sultry Jordan, at the end of March, and not a Turtle- 
dove is to be seen. Return in the second week in April, and clouds of Doves are feeding on the clovers of 
the plain. They stock every tree and thicket. At every step they flutter up from the herbage in front, they perch 
on every tree and bush, they overspread the whole face of the land. So universal, so simultaneous, and so 
conspicuous is their migration that the prophet might well place the Turtledove at the head of those birds 
which ‘ observe the time of their coming.’ While other songsters are heard chiefly in the morning or only 
at intervals, the Turtle, immediately on its arrival, pours forth, from every garden, grove, and wooded hill, 
its melancholy yet soothing ditty unceasingly from early dawn till sunset. From its fidelity to its mate, and 
its habit of pairing for life, among other reasons, the Dove was selected as a symbol of purity and an 
appropriate offering by the ancient heathens, as well as the Jews. Its amativeness is referred to in the 
Song of Solomon ; and its gentle eye has sup|)lied several comparisons : — ‘ Behold, thou art fair ; thou hast 
Dove’s eyes within thy locks.’ ‘ His eyes are as the eyes of Doves by the rivers of waters, w'ashed with milk 
and fairlv set,’ alluding to the bright red skin round the dark eye of the Turtle. 
“ The Turtledove is more numerous in Palestine than in any other country where it is found ; and, 
indeed, the Pigeon-tribe generally abound there to a degree unknown in other countries. This is accounted 
for by the botanical character of that region, where the herbage principally consists of leguminous plants of 
tlie clover and allied species, the leaves of which supply the food of most Pigeons. Owing, therefore, to the 
luxuriant growth of the clovers and lucernes, there is no limit to the number of Doves the Holy Land can 
maintain in spring and summer.” 
The Turtledove is a frequenter of woods, fir-plantations, and the thick and high hedges between 
cultivated lands. The nest is a thin, transparent, flat structure, com[)osed of a few small crossed twigs, and 
is usually placed on a horizontal branch, at about eight or ten feet from the ground. The eggs, which are 
deposited about the middle of June, are white, somewhat pointed at one end, rather more than an inch in 
length, and nearly an inch in breadth. “The parent birds,” says Mr. Yarrell, “sit by turns; the male 
occasionally feeds his mate during incubation ; and both afterwards mutually labour for the support of their 
young. In this country they are considered as producing but one brood in the season ; but in the south of 
France they are known to have a second pair of young. In the autumn they fly in small parties of ten or 
twelve, and leave this country about the end of August, and sometimes as late as the end of September, 
particularly in those seasons when our harvest is backward. ... I have observed that these birds are more 
numerous in the thickly wooded parts of the middle of Kent than elsewhere:” this agrees with my own 
observation ; for I have seen it breed there in great numbers, and have remarked that it has become still more 
numerous now the pilfering Jays, who constantly robbed them of their eggs, have been killed down. 
There is no difference in the external appearance of the sexes ; but the young arc destitute of the neck- 
mark, and are altogether duller in their colouring — particularly in the less pure blue-grey of the head, and the 
chestnut and black markings of the back and scapularies. At this age, too, the naked orbital skin is bluish, 
instead of red, the nostrils are large and swollen, and, as well as the bill, of a uniform dark olive ; front of 
the tarsi and toes reddish purple ; hinder part of the tarsi destitute of scutella, and of a greyish white. 
The Plate represents a male and a female, with the nest, all of the natural size. The plant is the Clematis 
vitalba. 
