274 COLUMBA LIVIA. 



lation on the part of the male. A love-scene among the rocks 

 is really an interesting sight. Concealed in a crevice or behind 

 a projecting cliff, you see a pigeon alight beside you, and stand 

 quietly for some time, when the whistling of pinions is heard, 

 and the male bird shoots past like an arrow, and is already be- 

 side his mate. Scarcely has he made a rapid survey of the 

 place, when directing his attention to the only beautiful object 

 which he sees, he approaches her, erecting his head, swelling 

 out his breast by inflating his crop, and spreading his tail, at 

 the same time uttering the well known coo-roo-coo^ the soft and 

 somewhat mournful sounds of which echo among the cliffs. 

 The female, shy and timorous, sits close to the rock, shifting 

 her position a little as the male advances, and sometimes stretch- 

 ing out her neck, as if to repel him by blows. The male con- 

 tinues his strutting and cooing, until the female, inadvertently 

 coming upon the edge of the shelf, flies off to the dark recesses 

 of the neighbouring cave, where she has scarcely alighted when 

 her lover is again by her side. 



Matters go on in this manner, and in the meantime a nest is 

 gradually formed, which consists of withered stalks and blades 

 of grass or other plants, not very neatly arranged, but disposed so 

 as to answer the intended purpose. Two beautiful white eggs, 

 of an elliptical form, one an inch and four twelfths in length, an 

 inch and one twelfth in breadth, the other a little shorter, are 

 then deposited, and in due time the young make their appearance. 

 During incubation the male supplies his mate with food, which 

 she picks from his throat as he forces it up from the crop. Even 

 at other times the female often goes up to the male, introduces 

 her bill on one side into his mouth, and obtains a grain of bar- 

 ley or a morsel of other food. In about three weeks, the young 

 come abroad, and after being fed and instructed by their parents 

 for some days, are left to shift for themselves. 



The old birds soon repair their nest, and rear another brood. 

 I cannot speak with certainty as to the precise number of broods 

 raised in the course of a season, but I know that there are at 

 least two. The first eggs are laid about the middle of April, 

 and the latest young are seen about the end of September. It 

 appears to me probable, from circumstances which have come 



