. Cassell's natural history . is the longest in the wing. The tail, like that of the passengir turtle, consists oftwelve feathers, the tips of which are rounded, except the two middle ones, which aregenerally worn to a point. The bill is very slender, without emargination, and the uppermandible very gently deflected towards the tip. Tlie tarsi and (oes are sliort, the clawsIjlunt and but little hooked, showing it to be partly ambulatory in its habits. As the name given to this bird iniijlics, it is common around the Cape of Good Hope,and it is also met with in Senegal, Senegambia, and Nubia. O
. Cassell's natural history . is the longest in the wing. The tail, like that of the passengir turtle, consists oftwelve feathers, the tips of which are rounded, except the two middle ones, which aregenerally worn to a point. The bill is very slender, without emargination, and the uppermandible very gently deflected towards the tip. Tlie tarsi and (oes are sliort, the clawsIjlunt and but little hooked, showing it to be partly ambulatory in its habits. As the name given to this bird iniijlics, it is common around the Cape of Good Hope,and it is also met with in Senegal, Senegambia, and Nubia. Of its habits and mannerswc have no detailed account, except tluit it makes its nest in low trees and shrubs, andlays two white, pellucid-looking eggs, very fragile and easily broken. The male, ofwhich we give an engiaving, has the forehead, the region around the base of the bill, thechin, throat, and part of the bicast, intense black. Tlie colours of the female are moresordid. • Coluiiilia Capciinis.—Auct. SI , I V -ij/K^. TUP. CONCAVE THE COLI.\RED TURTFJi.* 385 O From a very remote period this sjpecies appears to have been domesticated, or ratherkept in that state of captivity in which it is retained at the present day. It is stillabundant in Egypt and other parts of the East, where it is fostered and cultivated withcare ; and it is certain that many of the representations in the works, of ancient art,where the dove figures as the emblem of tenderness and aifection, or where it is depictedas the appropriate attendant of Venus, are accurate delineations of the collared ordomestic turtle. This bird does not appear to be susceptible of that attachment to itshome, or place of birth, for which the common or dove-cote pigeon is remarkable, andwhich peculiar quality renders that species so serviceable to man. On the contrary, likeits congener, the common or wild European turtle [Tiirtur commuim), it cannot be leftto range at perfect liberty, without the danger of its
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1854
