TURTLE DOVE.
DOLOMBN P A I S , OF T H E A N C I E N T BfttTTSH.
Coin mhrt Tu rtu r,
Turtur auritus,
LlNN-ftTO. LATHAM.
RAV.
Columba—A Pigeon Turtur—The Turtle Dove.
T H I S beautiful bird is an inhabitant of Africa, from whence it crosses
to Europe, and is met with in Germany, Italy, and other countries
of the continent. It has been noticed also in Asia—in Asia .Minor,
the East Indies, J a p a n , China, and the islands of the South Seas.
The Turtle Dove breeds in Baglej wood, Berkshire, near Oxford,
as James Dalton, E s t ] . , of W orcester College, has informed me. In
Yorkshire, one was obtained some years since near Halifax, and one
also in 182-1, 'near fair Rotherham/ not so fair in these times of
smoke as in the days of yore, those of the ' Dragon of Want ley;*
another was shot at High Catton, near York, one seen by Arthur
Strickland, Esq., near Burlington, and one taken near Scarborough,
another shot near Waiter, and one seen at Melbourne, both near
Pocklington. It is the most plentiful in the 'Eastern Counties.* In
Cambridgeshire, a few individuals of this species visit the plantations
in the neighbourhood of Bottisham every spring, and it has also been
noticed at Stetchworth and Wood-Ditton. In Norfolk, it is pretty
common in the summer; as also in Essex and Suffolk. In Kent,
where it is the most plentiful, I have seen a pair in the neighbourhood
of Sittingbourne. It is numerous in Surrey. A few occur in
Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall; and one has also been obtained
in Northumberland, in the autumn—namely, on Prestwick <Jar, in
September, 1794, as recorded by Bewick; it was with a flock. Since
then Sclby has spoken of others—one of them near Sunderland in the
autumn of 1818. In Northamptonshire it occurs throughout the county;
also in Oxfordshire, near Banbury, and in other parts, and in Gloucestershire,
near Berkeley; one near Melbourne, in Derbyshire, on the