Amidst the general harmony of the grove in spring, there are few prettier sounds than the gentle cooing of the Turtle-Dove. Perched upon a bough at no great height from the ground, it pours forth its soft murmurings with a delightful crescendo and diminuendo, while close at hand, upon a mere frame-work of a nest, the mate sits brooding upon her two milk-white eggs. Arriving in this country towards the end of April or beginning of May, the Turtle-Dove is seen only in pairs until the young are able to fly. Young and old then unite in flocks, and ten or a dozen may often be found together in the pea-fields and on the stubble, where they pick up the fallen grain. They are very partial also to vetches, rape, and wild mustard, and do some service to farmers by ridding the cultivated lands of the seeds of numerous weeds, such as the Corn Spurrey (Spergula arvensis), which is common in corn-fields, and the Silver-weed (Potentilla anserina), which they find upon the fallows. When Partridge shooting in September I have frequently found Turtle-Doves feeding amongst the root crops as well as on the bare stubble, but notwithstanding the cover afforded by the turnip-leaves I have generally found them so exceedingly wary, that it required a good deal of manoeuvring before I could get a sufficient number to make a pie. In point of flavour, and of course in size, they are not to be When taken young they are readily tamed, and will even breed in confinement, a thing that rarely happens in the case of the Wood Pigeon. Mr. Stevenson has known two or three instances in which this species when caged has crossed with the Collared Turtle-Dove (Turtur risoria) and reared a brood, and others have been recorded. The young “presented many characteristics of both parents.” Although commoner in the eastern and southeastern counties of England, the Turtle-Dove is generally dispersed in summer throughout the British Islands. In Ireland it is regarded as an annual visitant to the cultivated districts, and it has been found in most of the counties of Scotland, where Mr. Robert Gray, however, It was first known to occur in Shetland in the autumn of 1856, when Mr. Edmondston of Buness shot one at Balta Sound. “It was but little seen from that time until about six years ago (1868), by which time the trees had grown above the walls, offering a more suitable refuge for stragglers of this description.” On two On the continent of Europe this bird seems to be confined chiefly to the central and southern parts, and does not reach Scandinavia or Russia. But in France, Spain, and the countries bordering the Mediterranean, it is very common in summer. Its winter haunts are in North Africa; and in Egypt and Nubia it is especially abundant. Capt. Shelley says that it frequently breeds there. Mr. Thompson, when proceeding in H. M. S. “Beacon” from Malta to the Morea in the month of April, saw this species on its spring Colonel Irby informs me that when on his way from Southampton to Gibraltar on the 9th October, he saw a Turtle-Dove on its southward migration in the middle of the Bay of Biscay. LANDRAIL OR CORNCRAKE
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