The Turtle Dove is smaller than any of the other British Doves. When flying, it seems scarcely larger than a Missel Thrush; but it is more slender in shape, and its wings are much longer. It beats its wings, too, more rapidly, and moves through the air with greater velocity. The tints of its plumage are more varied than in the other British species, but far inferior in brilliancy to many foreign ones.
The Turtle Dove so frequently kept in a cage is the Collared Turtle Dove (_Columba risoria_), a native of India and China. This species is distinguished by a black crescent on the back of the neck, the horns of which nearly meet in front. Turtle Doves are much kept in Germany, owing to a strange popular superstition that they are more predisposed than the human species to nervous disorders and rheumatism, and that when any of these complaints visit a house, they fall on the birds rather than on their owners.
[40] 'Nec gemere aëria cessabit Turtur ab ulmo.'--VIRGIL. Nor shall from lofty elm the Turtle cease to moan.
Legs and toes feathered to the claws; no hind toe. Length sixteen to twenty inches.
This species was not known with us till 1859. Great flights visited this country in 1863, in 1888, and in 1889 when a few pair bred here.
Feathers of the throat elongated, black; head and neck dusky; eyes with a bare red skin above and a white spot below; wings brown speckled with black; breast lustrous green; abdomen black with white spots; rump and flanks marked with undulating lines of black and ash colour; tail black with white spots; beak horn white; eyebrows naked, red, beneath the eye a white spot. Length thirty-six inches. _Female_--a third smaller, barred and spotted with tawny red, black, and white; throat tawny red, unspotted; breast deep red; tail dark red with black bars, white at the tip; bill dusky. Eggs dull yellowish white speckled with yellowish brown.
The Capercaillie, Wood Grouse, or Cock of the Woods, was a rare bird in Scotland in Pennant's time (1769), and was found only in the Highlands north of Inverness. It became extinct in the eighteenth century, but was re-introduced in 1837 in Scotland, and it is now common in firwoods there, especially in Perthshire. In the pine forests of Sweden and Norway it is still indigenous, but, being a large and beautiful bird, is much sought after, and is annually receding from the haunts of men. It is also found in some of the central countries of Europe, as Poland and the Jura mountains, where it is said to be rather common. It is not only an inhabitant of woods, but passes its time for the most part in trees, and feeds in great measure on the young shoots of the Scotch fir. In summer it adds to its dietary berries, seeds, and insects, for which it searches among bushes or on the ground, returning to the woods to roost. The male bird has obtained great celebrity for his marvellous performances when serenading the hens during the morning and evening twilight in spring. "During his play, the neck of the Capercaillie is stretched out, his tail is raised and spread like a fan, his wings droop, his feathers are ruffled up, and, in short, he much resembles in appearance an angry Turkey Cock. He begins his play with a call something resembling the words _peller_, _peller_, _peller_; these sounds he repeats at first at some little intervals, but, as he proceeds, they increase in rapidity, until, at last, and after perhaps the lapse of a moment or so, he makes a sort of gulp in his throat, and finishes by drawing in his breath. During the continuance of this latter process, which only lasts a few seconds, the head of the Capercaillie is thrown up, his eyes are partially closed, and his whole appearance would denote that he is worked up into an agony of passion." This performance, however attractive it may De to those for whose benefit it is intended, exercises a fascination over himself which is often dangerous; for the sportsman, well acquainted with the sound, is thus guided to his perch, and, shy though the bird is at other times, is able to get near him unperceived or unheeded, and summarily closes his performances. The Capercaillie hen makes her nest upon the ground, and lays from six to twelve eggs. She is said to sit for four weeks. The young keep with her until towards the approach of winter. The size of the full-grown bird varies considerably according to the latitude in which it is found. In Lapland the male weighs about nine or ten pounds, but in the southern provinces of Sweden as much as seventeen pounds. The hen usually weighs from five to six pounds.