194 



DOMESTIC pigeons: 



Ciiap. VI. 



diversity; some specimens are identical in every feather (I speak 

 after actual comparison) with the rock-pigeon of the Shetland 

 Islands ; others are chequered, like 0. affinis from the cliffs of 

 England, but generally to a greater degree, being almost black over 

 the whole back ; others are identical with the so-called C. intermedia 

 of India in the degree of blueness of the croup ; whilst others have 

 this part very pale or very dark blue, and are likewise chequered. 

 So much variability raises a strong suspicion that these birds are 

 domestic pigeons which have become feral. 



From these facts it can hardly be doubted that C. livia, affinis, 

 ■intermedia, and the forms marked with an interrogation by Bonaparte 

 ought all to be included under a single species. But it is quite 

 immaterial whether or not they are thus ranked, and whether some 

 one of these forms or all are the progenitors of the various domestic 

 kinds, as far as any light can thus be thrown on the differences 

 between the more strongly-marked races. That common dovecot- 

 pigeons, which are kept in various parts of the world, are descended 

 from one or from several of the above-mentioned wild varieties of 

 C. livia, no one who compares them will doubt. But before making 

 a few remarks on dovecot-pigeons, it should be stated that the wild 

 rock-pigeon has been found easy to tame in several countries. We 

 have seen that Colonel King at Hythe stocked his dovecot more 

 than twenty years ago with young wild birds taken at the Orkney 

 Islands, and since then they have greatly multiplied. The accurate 

 Macgillivray 15 asserts that he completely tamed a wild rock-pigeon 

 in the Hebrides ; and several accounts are on records of these pigeons 

 having bred in dovecots in the Shetland Islands. In India, as 

 Captain Hutton informs me, the wild rock-pigeon is easily tamed, 

 and breeds readily with the domestic kind ; and Mr. Blyth 1G asserts 

 that wild birds come frequently to the dovecots and mingle freely 

 with their inhabitants. In the ancient f Ayeen Akbery ' it is written 

 that, if a few wild pigeons be taken, " they are speedily joined by a 

 thousand others of their kind." 



Dovecot-pigeons are those which are kept in dovecots in a semi- 

 domesticated state ; for no special care is taken of them, and they 

 procure their own food, except during the severest weather. In 

 England, and, judging from MM. Boitard and Corbie's work, in 

 France, the common dovecot-pigeon exactly resembles the chequered 



15 ' History of British Birds,' vol. i. 

 pp. 275-284. Mr. Andrew Duncan 

 tamed a rock-pigeon in the Shetland 

 Islands. Mr. James Barclay, and Mr. 

 Smith of Uyea Sound, both say that 

 the wild rock-pigeon can be easily 

 tamed ; and the former gentleman 

 asserts that the tamed birds breed 

 four times a year. Dr. Lawrence 

 Edmondstone informs me that a wild 



rock-pigeon came and settled in his 

 dovecot in Balta Sound in the Shet- 

 land Islands, and bred with his 

 pigeons ; he has also given me other 

 instances of the wild rock-pigeon 

 having been taken young and breed- 

 ing in captivity. 



16 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. 

 History,' vol. xix. 1847, p. 103, and 

 vol. for 1857, p. 512. 



