294 COLUMBA TURTUR. 



These are all the Pigeons that have any claims upon our 

 consideration. An individual of the American Passenger or 

 Migratory Pigeon, Ectopistes migratoria, is recorded by Dr. 

 Fleming, as having been shot in December 1825, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of a pigeon-house at Westhall, in the parish of 

 ^lonymeal, Fifeshire. The feathers, according to the de- 

 scriber of this specimen, " were quite fresh and entire, like 

 those of a wild bird." Why not ? If it had escaped from 

 confinement, and resided in a dove-cot for half a year, it 

 might have its plumage as neat as that of any other bird. Such 

 a circumstance affords no criterion. A beautiful specimen 

 of the Dominican Grosbeak, Loxia dominicana, in perfect plu- 

 mage, was sent to me fresh in the winter of 1831. It had 

 been shot somewhere near Dalkeith, and I made a drawing 

 of it for my collection of British Birds; but soon after it 

 was reported to have escaped from Lady Dalhousie's aviary. 

 In June 1835, a lovely little bird, fresh and with perfect 

 plumage, was brought to me from Braid Hermitage near Edin- 

 burgh, where it had been shot when in company with another 

 of the same species, supposed to be the female. It turned out 

 to be the Loxia Astrild. Its skin forms part of my collection ; 

 but I should no more think of assigning this species a place 

 among British birds, than of admitting the Migratory Pigeon. 

 Yet its claims are certainly equal, for its feathers " were 

 quite fresh and entire, like those of a wild bird,"' and re- 

 main so to the present day. 



