14 
TURTLE DOVE. 
some cases on the ground. It is composed of a handful of small 
twigs, laid with little art, on which are scattered dry fibrous 
roots of plants, and in this almost flat bed are deposited two 
eggs, of a snowy whiteness. The male and female unite in feed- 
ing the young, and they have rarely more than two broods in 
the same season. 
The flesh of this bird is considered much superior to that of 
the Wild Pigeon; but its seeming confidence in man, the ten- 
derness of its notes, and the innocency attached to its character, 
are with many its security and protection; with others, how- 
ever, the tenderness of its flesh, and the sport of shooting, over- 
come all other considerations. About the commencement of 
frost, they begin to move oflf to the south; numbers, however, 
remain in Pennsylvania during the whole winter. 
The Turtle Dove is twelve inches long, and seventeen inches 
in extent; bill black; eye of a glossy blackness, surrounded with 
a pale greenish blue skin; crown, upper part of the neck and 
wings a fine silky slate blue; back, scapulars and lesser wing- 
coverts ashy brown; tertials spotted with black: primaries edg- 
ed and tipt with white; forehead, sides of the neck and breast, 
a pale brown vinous orange; under the ear feathers a spot or 
drop of deep black; immediately below which the plumage re- 
flects the most vivid tints of green, gold and crimson, chin pale 
yellow ochre; belly and vent whitish; legs and feet coral red, 
seamed with white; the tail is long and cuneiform, consisting 
of fourteen feathers; the four exterior ones on each side are 
marked with black about an inch from the tips, and white thence 
to the extremity; the next has less of the white at the tip; these 
gradually lengthen to the four middle ones, which are wholly 
dark slate; all of them taper towards the points, the two middle 
ones most so. 
The female is an inch shorter, and is otherwise only distin- 
guished by the less brilliancy of her colour; she also wants the 
rich silky blue on the crown, and much of the splendor of the 
neck; the tail is also somewhat shorter, and the white with 
which it is marked less pure. 
