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WOOD PIGEON. This species forms its nest of a few dry sticks in the boughs of trees: the female lays two white eggs, and is supposed to have two broods in the year. The wood pigeon, or, as it is called in some districts, the ring-dove, is tiie largest of the pigeon tribe; it weighs about twenty ounces, and may be at once distinguished from all others by the white mark on the hind part of the neck ; the bill is of a pale red colour; a white line extends from the point of the wing downwards, passing above the bastard wing ; the tail cinereous, tipped with black; the legs red, and partly covered with feathers; the claws black.
Attempts have been made to domesticate the ring-dove, by hatching their eggs under the common pigeon in dovecotes; but these endeavours have uniformly failed: as soon as the young ones can fly, they betake themselves to their natural haunts. They feed on herbs, all sorts of grain, and wild fruits; their flesh is truly delicious; but it soon becomes bitter and unpleasant from their eating turnips, which, in severe weather, they are compelled to do for want of other sustenance.
Harewood, Harry. A Dictionary of Sports. London: T. Tegg and son, 1835.
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