Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura

The Mourning Dove, an Almanac

• The naturalist Sturge, who dissected a great many, pronounced the Mourning Dove an animal of melancholic disposition.
• Science teaches, whatever the peasantry may hold, that its plumage, ground fine and taken in wine, is a specific against the dropsy.
• Rain rides in behind the Mourning Dove when it flies low over Merrow Fen.
• There's them that swear its shadow crossing the kitchen sill sours nothing but a guilty conscience.
• The old-timers hereabouts maintain that to see one come off Lower Tideline is to expect visitors by the thaw.

Folklore, invented on the spot — not to be believed.