The RING-DOVE, WOOD PIGEON, or CUSHAT (_Palumbus torquatus_), has a large and strongly-built body, comparatively long tail, and short feet. The plumage of the adult bird is of a deep blue on the head, nape, and throat; the upper part of the back and upper wing-covers are dark greyish blue, and the lower portion of the back and rump light blue; the breast is reddish grey, the centre of the under side light greyish blue, and the lower belly white. The lower part of the throat is decorated on each side with a glossy white spot, and gleams with metallic lustre; the quills are slate-grey and the tail-feathers slate-black, marked with an irregular stripe of lighter shade. The female is recognisable from her mate by the inferiority of her size, and the young birds by their comparatively pale plumage. In all, the eye is pale sulphur-yellow, the beak light yellow, with a red base, and the foot blueish red. The length of the body is sixteen inches and a half, and the breadth twenty-eight inches and a half; the wing measures nine and the tail six inches and a half. [Illustration: THE PARROT PIGEON (_Phalacroteron Abyssinica_).] The Ring-dove, so called on account of the white feathers that partially encircle the throat, is the largest of all the wild Pigeons met with in Europe, the warm and temperate portions of which it frequents in large numbers, only visiting such northern countries as Sweden and Norway during the warm seasons. It is particularly fond of fir plantations, and in these its tender, cooing note may be heard during the entire spring and summer. In England these Pigeons resort to woods, coppices, and enclosed ground; and in winter assemble and roost in large parties on the summits of lofty trees, the ash-tree affording them a very favourite gathering-place. Their food consists of young leaves and seeds of various kinds, according to the season of the year. In spring and summer they subsist principally on the tender leaves of growing plants, and often commit great ravages in fields of beans and peas. Spring-sown corn is also attacked by them, both in the grain and the blade; and as soon as young turnips have put forth their second leaves, they, too, become objects of devastation. As the season advances they visit the corn-fields, especially those in the neighbourhood of their native woods, and seek for oily seeds of all kinds with great eagerness. At the approach of autumn they assemble in small flocks, and resort to oak and beech trees, where acorns and beech-mast, swallowed whole, afford them an abundant and nourishing diet. In winter these small flocks unite, and form larger ones, so large, indeed, that it would appear probable that their numbers are considerably augmented by arrivals from colder climates. Both parents assist in making their strange and carelessly constructed abode, which scarcely deserves to be called a nest, being nothing more than a mere platform of twigs, so loosely put