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WOOD PIGEON. 
RING DOVE. CUSHAT. QUEHST. 
Columba palumbus, PENNANT. Monracu. 
Columba—A Pigeon. Palumbus—A Wood Pigeon. 
Tuis bird is a universal favourite, an emblem, as it is 
always considered, of peace, innocence, and conjugal fidelity. 
‘It was a Dove, ever since sacred to peace,’ says Booth, ‘that 
brought the olive branch to the ark of Noah, for which she 
has her place among constellations; and the christian world 
still personate the Hoty Sprrir under the mystic emblem of 
a Dove.’ 
It is found in Europe as far north as the southern parts 
of Siberia and Russia, as in summer in Denmark and Sweden; 
likewise so far south as the latitude of Madeira, and in the 
northern part of the African continent, and in Asia. 
The Ring Dove occurs throughout the whole of England 
and Scotland, so far north as Tongue in Sutherlandshire, 
and has been seen several times in the Orkneys. It has 
been killed in Sanday—one was shot in Orphir in the 
autumn of 1844, another at Pabdale by Mr. Duguid, and a 
third at the same place | by Mr. Ranken, the 15th. of 
October, 1846. 
It is with usa stationary inhabitant, but in the winter many 
are said to come over from the continent, and a departure 
again is accordingly supposed to take place in the spring. 
Of the enormous flocks which congregate in the winter, some 
do not separate till late in the spring, while others, in 
parliamentary phrase, ‘pair for the session’ by the beginning 
of March. In hard weather they sometimes make limited 
migrations, but such are not often called for—their food, 
unless covered with snow, being almost everywhere to be met 
with. 
