- ring-dove or wood-pigeon Columba palumbus. Sir Walter Scott, in The Lady of the Lake (1810), alludes to the cushat in a typical literary way:
In answer coo'd the cushat dove Her notes of peace, and rest, and love.
This legendary loving habit of doves means that the name of this bird and the sound it makes are often applied to affectionate human interactions:
I wad judge she's past the cooin', cushie-doo stage, an' will sensibly consider this chance o' a guid doon-settin'
(JOSEPH WAUGH Cute McCheyne 1917)
and:
O' Kirsty, jist say that you'll be mine, my bonnie hen, my darlin' lamb, my ain wee cushie doo!
(ALEXANDER WARDROP Johnnie Mathison's Courtship and Marriage 1881)
Who can say that the Scots are not romantic?