continued where I was, he soon returned, and after waiting a little,
presently went hack again. This T always understood as an invitation
to go and open the pea pods for him; and it was one always acceded
to, although sometimes I caused it to be repeated several times.
He was now as nearly in a state of nature as possible; with abundance
of his natural food within Ids reach, uncontrolled, as far as
liberty was concerned, and with numerous birds of his own species
in the neighbourhood. There was nothing to prevent his making off
if he chose, yet he never shewed the least inclination to do so. He
flew to me fearlessly as ever, to the very last day of my stay at
home; if he saw me lying on the grass, he came and nestled on my
breast. I walked about the garden, and in and out of the house
with him on my shoulder; and though he never favoured any of my
friends with the same symptoms of confidence and attachment as he
did myself, he was under no kind of fear of them. At last ' Black
Monday1 came round again. I loved him too well to confine him;
still less could I think of taking him back to school with me; so I left
him to do as he liked.
For the first three or four days of my absence he continued to keep
about the house; he seemed to be looking for something he had lost;
once, and once only, he flew on my father's shoulder, but seemed
instantly to be aware that it was not his well-loved master, and stayed
no longer than to find it out. He was seen about the garden for long
afterwards, but came no more near any of my relatives.
Some of his habits were sufficiently amusing. For instance, if a
dead bird were shewn to him, his ire was instantly roused, and he
attacked it with the greatest fierceness; a rough harsh note was first
emitted, and then followed a shower of pecks and blows of the wing
upon the bird, the feathers of which were dispersed in all directions.
So determined was the onset, that the bird was half-plucked in a very
short time. If while sleeping—previous, that is to his being left out
all night—I awakened him unceremoniously, his anger was expressed
much in the same way;—the rough coo and blow were instantly given.
I have never had another King Dove so thoroughly tame as this
one, though 1 have succeeded in familiarizing several; the fact is, I
never took so much pains and trouble with any other; and with
respect to the individual in question, my firm impression is, that had
I stayed at home until the breeding-season, at the arrival id" which
time he might probably have left me; but even then I should have
expected him to pay me frequent visits lor food, and most likely to
have nested in the immediate vicinity of the house.
It is well known that few birds are wilder and more distrustful
than the Ring Dove in autumn and winter; but that at the approach
of spring they throw off much of their wilduess, and become comparatively
familiar and confiding; and it appears to me somewhat
remarkable, that the strongest case of this change of their habits I
ever heard of, has since occurred in the garden about which my tame
King Dove spent his time. A pair of these birds nested in a shrub
about twenty yards from the front of the house. Under the shrub
was placed a garden chair, which was usually occupied several hours
in the day. Reading aloud was frequently resorted to by the parties
occupying the chair; and three or four children were pursuing their
sports all round, and, like all other children, did not always pursue
them iu 'solemn silence.' But this was not all.—The nest was not
six feet from the ground, and visitors were often introduced to the
sitting bird, who, seeming to care nothing for the close approximation
of human eyes to her own, sat on in spite of all, and in due time
hatched. This regardlessness of the eye of man has always seemed to
me very strange. Look steadfastly at your favourite dog, and he
turns away his eye in apparent uneasiness, and will not look at you,
even though you call him, while he suspects you arc still gazing at him.
The wild-fowl shooter will tell you to be careful not to look at tlie
approaching flight of Wild Ducks, for they will 'see your eye' and
turn another way. Walk under the tree in your garden, where the
King Dove is sitting, take no notice of her, and she will take none
of you: come back again and look steadfastly at her as you pass, and
in nineteen cases out of twenty she will fly off. Yet in the case I
am describing, the visitor's eye was often not more than two feet
from the bird, and unless it was long fixed on her she never moved.
During the time of incubation the male, or that bird which was not
sitting, for I believe the male relieves the female for a space of
seven or eight hours every day—the Domestic Pigeon certainly does
—was generally to be seen sitting in an ash tree at the bottom of
the garden. A snnilar instance of extraordinary confidence was exhibited,
and probably by the same birds, in the following spring.
Some people, we all know, adopt very singular theories on certain
subjects, and so long as they are theories merely, or quite innocent,
or their upholders do not seek to enforce their adoption upon other
people, I do not see why the theorists should be disturbed in their
belief, and on this ground I claim indulgence when I assert my belief
that these very familiar and fearless Ring Doves were either the
direct descendants of my old pet, or that one of them was the
identical pet iu question. I make a point of believing this, for it
is to me a satisfactory belief, and it is not after all a very singular