190 



DOMESTIC PIGEONS : 



Chap. VI 



was evident. 2 Nevertheless, Mr. E. Scot Skirving informs 

 me that he often saw crowds of pigeons in Upper Egypt 

 settling on low trees, but not on palms, in preference to 

 alighting on the mud hovels of the natives. In India Mr. 

 Blyth 3 has been assured that the wild C. livia, var. intermedia, 

 sometimes roosts in trees. I may here give a curious instance 

 of compulsion leading to changed habits : the banks of the 

 Nile above lat. 28° 30' are perpendicular for a long distance, 

 so that when the river is full the pigeons cannot alight on 

 the shore to drink, and Mr. Skirving repeatedly saw whole 

 flocks settle on the water, and drink whilst they floated down 

 the stream. These flocks seen from a distance resembled 

 flocks of gulls on the surface of the sea. 



If any domestic race had descended from a species which 

 was not social, or which built its nest and roosted in trees, 4 

 the sharp eyes of fanciers would assuredly have detected some 

 vestige of so different an aboriginal habit. For we have 

 reason to believe that aboriginal habits are long retained 

 under domestication. Thus with the common ass we see 

 signs of its original desert life in its strong dislike to cross 

 the smallest stream of water, and in its pleasure in rolling in 

 the dust. The same strong dislike to cross a stream is 

 common to the camel, which has been domesticated from a 

 very ancient period. Young pigs, though so tame, sometimes 

 squat when frightened, and thus try to conceal themselves 

 even on an ojjen and bare place. Young turkeys, and occa- 

 sionally even young fowls, when the hen gives the danger- 

 cry, run away and try to hide themselves, like young par- 

 tridges or pheasants, in order that their mother may take 



2 I have heard through Sir C. Lyell 

 from Miss Buckley, that some h alt- 

 bred Carriers kept during many years 

 near London regularly settled by day 

 on some adjoining trees, and, after 

 being disturbed in their loft by their 

 young being taken, roosted on them at 

 night. 



3 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' 

 2nd ser., vol. xx., 1857, p. 509 ; and 

 in a late volume of the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society. 



4 In works written on the pigeon 

 bv fanciers I have sometimes observed 

 the mistaken belief expressed that 

 the species which naturalists called 

 ground-pigeons (in contradistinction 

 to arboreal pigeons) do not perch and 

 build on trees. In these same works 

 by fanciers wild species resembling 

 the chief domestic races are often said 

 to exist in various parts of the worhf 

 but such species are quite unknovvD 

 to naturalists. 



