Ornithological and Other Oddities 



sight in the parks in spring is two wood-pigeons 

 squaring up to each other nobly in the pathway 

 to settle some affair of honour, with the public 

 as sympathising seconds. It is no doubt sad 

 that the birds should thus wash their dirty 

 linen in public, and lower themselves in our 

 estimation ; but their choice of arena and con- 

 fidence in the lookers-on are altogether charming. 

 Comparing the wood-pigeon with the domestic 

 pigeon reminds one of how the two species 

 have to a slight extent interchanged habits. 

 Sometimes the wood - pigeon will build on a 

 house, and now and then feed in the street, 

 while I once saw a pair picking about in, of 

 all places, the tiny goods-yard of Baker Street 

 Station. On the other hand, the tame pigeons 

 have taken to the trees in Hyde Park, a 

 very rare habit in the domestic bird ; indeed, 

 I have never seen it elsewhere except in a 

 few places where trees were exceedingly close 

 to a dovecot. The smallest and daintiest of 

 our pigeons, the turtle-dove, made its appear- 

 ance in our parks in 1904, for the first time, 

 so far as I am aware. A single bird haunted 

 the back premises of the south-west end of the 

 Zoological Gardens for some time, and I was 

 told it had a mate ; indeed, I myself once saw 

 two or three pairs on the wing at one time 



there. The single bird was wild, but could 



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