512 Mr. E. Blyth on the Columbine. 



adopted from Pallas, but the particular distinguishing characters 

 are not specified. 



C. Schimperi, also, ^^ which covers with its innumerable flocks 

 the more desert plains of Abyssinia/^ It is stouter and more 

 albescent than the common C. livia. 



Likewise C. gymnocyclus, Gray, from Senegal. " Obscurior j 

 orbitis nudis ; rostro valde robustiore.^' 



Lastly, C. intermedia, Strickland, of India* ; the common 'Blue 

 Pigeon^ of this country, which only differs from C. livia by having 

 the croup uniformly coloured with the back, as in the European 

 ' Stock Dove,^ and by a somewhat deeper and more uniform shade 

 of ash-colour. Yet the purely wild birds continue true to this 

 colouring, and no variation will be seen in the largest flocks of 

 them, where unmixed with domestic Pigeons ; but they most 

 readily mingle with the latter, and scarcely require encouragement 

 to fall into domestic habits. In the vicinity of Calcutta, the 

 pure wild race can hardly be obtained, though there are domestic 

 Pigeons in every ordinary flock (not of 'fancy birds^) which are 

 undistinguishable from the wild, in company with others varying 

 more or less in colouring from the type. But even at Benares 

 w^e remarked a great assemblage of these birds, nestling in the 

 innumerable nooks about the famous mosque of Aurungzebe, 

 and sought in vain for any variation of colouring among them, 

 and especially for the white croup of the true C livia. Col. Sykes 

 refers this bird to C. oenas, and remarks that it is '' the most 

 common bird in the Dukhun, congregating in flocks of scores, 

 and a constant inhabitant of every old dilapidated building.^^ 

 He saw ''the same species, on board ship, on the voyage to 

 England, brought from China;" and the Rev. J. Mason notes 

 the occurrence of what he considers to be the same bird, wild in 

 Burma. In Ceylon, according to Mr. Edgar L. Layard, " this 

 species is extremely local, being confined to two places, ' Pigeon 

 Island,' off Trincomali, and a rock of the southern coast near 

 Barberryaf. From these it makes incursions into the interior; 

 and I have heard,'' he adds, " of specimens being shot on the 

 great central road, about 50 miles from Trincomali." Dr. Jerdon 

 remarks, that "it abounds all over India, and is occasionally 

 found in the more open spaces of jungles, especially in rocky 

 districts, and in the neighbourhood of waterfalls, — but more 

 generally in the open country, inhabiting walls of villages, pa- 

 godas, wells, and any large buildings, and breeding chiefly in 

 old walls." Major Tickell, again, notices it as "exceedingly 

 common in Chota Nagpur, breeding in all the steep, lofty rocks 



* Comptes Rendus, xhii. p. 838. 



t Resorting thus, it would seem, to sea-cliflfs, wherever the latter are 

 available. 



