Christmas is nigh so let us consider a bird featuring in a popular festive song. Quite why the turtle dove appears in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” has baffled me for years.
After all, this beautiful brown-backed dove is thousands of miles away in balmy Africa, not feeling the cold wind beneath its wings in Europe during Yuletide. Much is still unexplained about a song believed to be of French origin.
The two turtle doves mentioned represent the Old and New Testaments according to religious interpretation. Three French hens and a partridge in a pear tree are self-explanatory but what are “colly birds” ? A derivative of calling birds maybe but which species ? The religious interpretation is the Four Apostles.
Wild Things: A year in literature
Turtle Dove by Ralph Todd
Anyway the chances of seeing a wild turtle dove in England or France at Christmas are zero. It must have been included in the song because of its association with traditional Christmas values such as family and love. Like other doves, the turtle will remain faithful to a mate while its loving nature has been recognised in song and literature.
In the pop song “That’ll Be The Day”, Buddy Holly sings: “You give me all your lovin’ and your ter-hurtle dovin’ “ in his familiar hiccupping style. Turtle doves appear early in the ad-jingle turned New Seekers chart-topper "I'd like to teach the world to sing." In 79AD Pliny wrote: “They live together with others but do not break their marriage bond.” Chaucer in 1380 wrote about the “wedded turtle dove with her faithful heart” and William Shakespeare wrote in Henry V1: “Like a pair of loving turtle doves that could not live asunder day or night.”
Turtle Dove by Tony Dunstan
Wild Things: Identifying your Orchids
The name has no connection to turtles but is based on its loud, repeated “turr-turr” call which can be heard nearly half a mile away. Heroic efforts have been launched by conservationists to save turtle doves from extinction in Britain where the population plummeted 90 percent in recent years due mainly to changes in farming practices and shooting on spring migration across Europe.
The total loss to Britain of this gentle songster with three black neck markings and pink breast would turn a celebratory Christmas song into a lament.
Happy Christmas to you all !
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