Volume 9, Plate Vignette / Ornithology (Birds)

Ring Pigeon, or Cushat

Columba palumbus

An indigenous European species, resident or migratory according to climate, distributed throughout Britain and measuring sixteen to seventeen inches, gathering into great winter flocks that haunt stubbles, beech-mast, and turnip fields before pairing in February. The head and neck are bluish-grey with a green-glossed white neck-patch, the breast purplish-red, and it builds a flimsy twig platform, laying two white eggs and raising two broods yearly, though wary and untameable.