This card shows the turtle dove. Now a dove seems to be a universal symbol of peace, freedom and devotion, and it appears in many different religions, as well as cultures, all across the world.
It was a dove, you may remember, who was sent by Noah to find land, and came back with an olive branch, another peace symbol.
We chose the turtle dove because its voice is one of the most soothing of them all, yet quiet and soft. Which is further proof that sometimes the quietest of voices make the biggest of differences
The set appears in our original Ogdens Ltd reference book as :
50. 50. British Birds & Their Eggs. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour.Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issue, 1939. Similar series issued by Hignett.
Now the curious fact is that the Hignett version of this set was issued in 1938.
The description in our original World Tobacco Issues Indexes is much smaller, only "BRITISH BIRDS & THEIR EGGS. Sm. Nd. (50) See Ha.571.3". That Ha ncode is to the handbook, and that just tells us the set was also issued by Hignett.
In our updated version the text is the same but the handbook code is gone.