COLUMBA, Lit]. &C. PIGEON.
Bill middle-sized, compressed, arched, tip-curved, base of the upper mandible covered with a soft, inflated skin ; legs generally red ; wings middle-sized or short.
With even tails.
C. palumbus, Lin. &c. Ring Pigeon or Ring Dove, Prov. Queset, Cushat, or IVood pigeon. Grey, with the tips of the tail-feathers dark, the exterior margin of the primary quills whitish, and the neck white on each side ; but this last mentioned character is not vissible during the first year. A large species, measuring seventeen inches and a half in length, and twenty-nine inches in ex tent of wing, and weighing twenty ounces.
The ring dove is diffused over Europe, and though it prefers warm and temperate countries to the northern regions, it is, nevertheless, found in Sweden, Russia, and even Siberia, during the summer season. It is obviously a native of this island, in which, however, as in France, it is at least a bird of passage, shifting from the northern to the southern parts. In winter, these birds assemble in large flocks, and invariably resort to the woods, to roost in the highest trees, particularly the ash and beech. The great numbers that are seen together at this season have given rise to an opinion that many come to us from the more northern regions of the world ; but if we consider how much dispersed all birds are in the period of breed ing, we will be less surprised at their multitudes, when locally assembled. In France, they are sometimes ob served in winter, but much more abundantly in the fine season, generally arriving in February, and retiring in October or November. Though naturally very shy, some pairs have fixed their abode in the elevated trees of the gardens of the Thuilleries and Luxembourg, manifesting the same sense of security as domestic pigeons, and un dismayed by the crowds of company ; for they breed and rear their young without any symptoms of inquietude; but, when they repair to the neighbouring fields for food, they evince all the timidity of their species. They chief ly subsist on acorns, beech-mast, and various berries and grains, in default of which they will crop the tender shoots of clover, green corn, or turnips, the last of which con siderably injures their flavour. They alight in numerous
bands on ripe crops that have been laid by the rain ; and they greedily devour the creeping roots of couch-grass, and the mountain strawberry. In several which Mr. At kinson opened in June, the crops were full of the immature oak-apple, as it is called, which is the lodgment of the Cynips quercifolia. In England these birds most abound where the beechen woods are most extensive. When congregated in winter, they leave off cooing, but they resume it in March, when they begin to pair, at which time the male is obsesved to fly in a singular manner, alternately rising and falling in the air. The nest is form ed of a few small sticks, so loosely put together, that the eggs may frequently be seen through them. These are two, or rarely three, white, exactly oval, and larger than those of the common pigeon. The nest, which is the joint production of the pair, is sometimes placed among brushwood, and in hedges, or large hawthorn bushes, but more frequently in the fork of a tree, or against the body of it, when encircled with ivy. The incubation lasts four teen days, and in other fourteen the young are capable of shifting for themselves. This species breeds twice a-year. Its note is louder and more plaintive than that of the com mon pigeon, but uttered only in pairing time, or during fine weather. Various attempts to domesticate it, by hatching the eggs in dove houses, under the common pigeon, have proved abortive ; for as soon as the young ones are able to fly, they always escaped to their proper haunts.
C. arquatrix, Tem. Parabolic Pigeon. Purple-blue, breast black beneath, and varied with purple ; head grey bluish ; abdomen and wings with white spots ; feet feathery. Fifteen inches in length. Native of the Anteniquois for ests in Africa. During the season of incubation the male and female are always found paired, but at other times they associate in flocks. They construct their nest like the stock dove, and produce ten white eggs. On com mencing their flight they do not proceed in a straight line, but describe a parabola ; and they continue forming a series of arcs, uttering their cry when on wing.