and in summer 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, “ o f 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 o f the country, highland and lowland
alike.” In his valuable little work, ‘ On the Natural History o f the Bible,’ he says:— “ B ut the Turtledove
to which, no doubt, the various Scriptural passages refer is our own ( Turtur auritus)* Its return in
spring is one o f 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 g o n e ; the
flowers appear on the e a rth ; the time o f the singing of birds is come, and the voice o f the Turtle is heard
in our land.’ Search the glades and valleys, even by sultry Jordan, a t the end o f March, and not a Turtledove
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 o f the land. So universal, so simultaneous, and so
conspicuous is their migration that the prophet might well place the Turtledove a t the head o f those birds
which ‘ observe the time o f their coming.’ While other songsters are heard chiefly in the morning o r 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 o f 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 o f Solomon; and its gentle eye has supplied several comparisons:— 4 Behold, thou a rt fa ir ; thou hast
Dove’s eyes within thy locks.’ ‘ H is eyes are as the eyes of Doves by the rivers o f waters, washed with milk
and fairly set,’ alluding to the bright red skin round the dark eye o f 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 o f that region, where the herbage principally consists o f leguminous plants of
the clover and allied species, the leaves o f which supply the food o f most Pigeons. Owing, therefore, to the
luxuriant growth o f the clovers and lucernes, there is no limit to the number o f Doves the Holy Land can
maintain in spring and summer.”
The Turtledove is a frequenter o f woods, fir-plantations, and the thick and high hedges between
cultivated lands. The nest is a thin, transparent, flat structure, composed o f 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 o f June, are white, somewhat pointed a t one end, rather more than an inch in
length, and nearly an inch in breadth. “ The parent birds,” says Mr. Yarrell, “ sit by tu rn s ; the male
occasionally feeds his mate during incubation; and both afterwards mutually labour for the support o f their
young. In this country they are considered as producing but one brood in the seaso n ; but in the south of
France they are known to have a second pair o f young. In the autumn they fly in smalLparties o f ten or
twelve, and leave this country about the end o f August, and sometimes as late as the end o f September,
particularly in those seasons when our harvest is backward. . . . I have observed th at these birds are more
numerous in the thickly wooded parts o f the middle o f Kent than elsewhere:” this agrees with my own
observation; for I have seen it breed there in g reat numbers, and have remarked that it has become still more
numerous now the pilfering Jays, who constantly robbed them o f their eggs, have been killed down.
There is no difference in the external appearance of the sex es; but the young are destitute o f the neck-
mark, and are altogether duller in their colouring—particularly in the less pure blue-grey o f the head, and the
chestnut and black markings o f 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 o f the tarsi destitute o f scutella, and o f a greyish white.
The Plate represents a male and a female, with the nest, all o f the natural size. The plant is the Clematis
vitalba.