Turtle Dove
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Turtle Dove. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in ornithology, Turtur communis, widely distributed in the warmer parts of Europe. It is a beautiful bird, of somewhat slender form, a summer visitant to the cooler latitudes, arriving in May and departing in September. The male is about a foot long, with the head light bluish gray, the back grayish-brown, the scap- , ulars and small wing coverts black with broad rust-red margins, the breast pale grayish-purple, the neck with two large The black spots barred with white. female is rather smaller, with similar They feed plumage, but of duller tints. on grain and vegetables, often frequenting fields of beans and peas. They make which a slight flat nest of a few twigs, in detwo glossy, creamy-white eggs are posited about the middle of May, and the parent birds take turns at incubation, rearing two broods in a sometimes season. The note is a soft, mournful when the bird is on "coo," often uttered the ground. From its habit of pairing for life, and its fidelity to its mate, the symbol of turtle dove has long been a conjugal affection. In Scripture, probably either T. combird is munis or risorius. The latter about 10 inches in length; tail short; with red general color gray, tinted , upper parts greenish brown, with a black collar on the back of the neck.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
. See Dove Tuskegee (tus-ke'ge) Normal and Industrial Institute, a school for the education of the negro. It was founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881 at Tuskegee, Alabama. Washington began with a hundred acres of pine land and a small cabin. The first students built their own cabins and cleared the land. Later, both the state and nation granted aid. The institution also received large donations from philanthropists. The present property is worth half a million dollars. There are 150 instructors and 1,500 students, all colored. There are 2,631 acres of land and over 60 buildings. The aim of the school is to train colored teachers, farmers, housekeepers, and mechanics, and especially to teach the value and the dignity of labor. So far as practicable students are enabled to work their way. The best account is to be gained from Washington's autobiographical work, Up from Slavery, and a later volume, Tuskegee and Its School.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 the turtle dove was simply "widely distributed in the warmer parts of Europe" and a reliable May arrival. It is now one of Europe's fastest-vanishing birds: the IUCN listed the European turtle dove as Vulnerable in 2015, and Britain's breeding population has fallen by roughly 98 per cent since the late 1960s, blamed on the loss of the weed seeds and stubbles that once fed it in "fields of beans and peas," plus shooting on migration. In 2021 France, Spain and Portugal suspended the autumn hunt along the western flyway. The Latin name has moved too: Collier's Turtur communis is now Streptopelia turtur, and the collared dove it offers as the Scriptural alternative is placed in the same genus.
Written for this edition, 2026.