380 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, &^c. 



to mention the noisy Sparrows which have taken possession of 

 trhe water-spouts. 



During the summer of 1865, I frequently remarked a pair of 

 Pigeons flying out from a good-sized hole at the base of the 

 spire. They looked like Stock-Doves ; but the scarcity of this 

 species here in the breeding-season, as well as the unlikely 

 situation which they had selected, caused me to think at the 

 time that they could be only a pair of escaped " Blue Rocks." 

 I could easily have shot one of the birds as it flew out, and thus 

 settled the question, but I was anxious to prove something more. 



An inspection of the interior of the church, which I unfor- 

 tunately delayed until the summer was far advanced, showed that 

 a nest, evidently a Pigeon's, had been built upon a cross beam 

 above the bells. I was too late then for eggs ; the young had 

 flown. There was nothing for it, therefore, but to wait until the 

 following spring, and then endeavour to secure a pair of young 

 birds. Accordingly jotting down a memorandum in my note- 

 book, and resolving to keep the fact of there being Pigeons in 

 the church-spire to myself, I waited patiently for another nest- 

 ing-season. My patience has been so far rewarded, that, after 

 watching a pair of birds take up their quarters in the same site as 

 that selected the previous year, and after several anxious visits of 

 inspection, I was at length enabled, in July 1866, to carry off a 

 pair of fine young pigeons, which were almost able to fly. The 

 " coo " of the Stock-Dove is very peculiar, and by this time I 

 had heard and seen enough of the birds in question to convince 

 me that they belonged to this species. 



Their young, which I had secured, after being fed for some 

 time in a cage in the house, were transferred to my aviary. They 

 are now in fine plumage, and have proved, as I suspected, to be 

 undoubtedly the young of Columba o&nas. 



I am, Sii', your obedient servant, 



J. Edmund Harting, 



April 25, 1867. 

 Sir, — In the year 1860 I bought a specimen of Hypotriur- 

 chis eleonorcE from Mr. Jamrach. It was then in the immature 



