on the Snow Pigeon.



177



quarrelsome birds, but will defend their domain from intruders ;

one pair carries on constant warfare with a pair of South African

Triangular Spotted Pigeons (C. phesonota) which live across the

way, and have quite ousted a pair of Half-collared Doves (Turtur

semitorqualus ) which formerly nested in the place which they

have chosen, so much so that the poor Half-collareds did not

attempt to nest last year at all, though formerly they were hardly

ever without eggs or young. The other pair are hard put to it

to hold their own against an aggressive pair of White-crowned

Pigeons, who want the whole of their inner house (about 10 feet

square) for their exclusive use.


I will now describe the notes and gestures, which are by no

means the least interesting feature of this curious bird ; the usual

note, which has been well described by Mr. Finn above, is a sort

of hiccough; this note is uttered when the bird is fighting, or

when it wishes to drive another from the food. When the cock

wishes to pay his addresses to the hen, if they are on the ground,

he runs after her and utters a note like kuck-kuck-kuck rapidly

repeated many times, the head bobbing at each kuck , this is

generally followed by the hiccough note several times repeated ;

at each the head is bobbed down while the hinder part of the

body is jerked upwards so that the tail will point almost straight

up, but is not spread as one might have imagined in order to

display its markings ; this action is quite ludicrous to watch, and

reminds one for all the world of some child’s mechanical toy.

If he is very excited he may give a little hop after the hen now

and then, during which the tail is certainly spread and depressed

a little, this is very like the action of a hen domestic Pigeon when

the cock is playing up to her. The note used by the male when

sitting in the nest, in order to attract his mate, seems to be a

sort of combination of the two usual notes—hiccough hiccough,

kuck-kuck -hiccough.


It is to be regretted that the nidification of this Pigeon

does not seem to have been described ; perhaps Dteut. Cordeaux

never actually saw the nests, but it undoubtedly nests among

rocks, very likely like our Rock and Stock Doves, but whether in

deep caverns like the former, or shallower depressions like the

latter, it is impossible to say. For a roclc-building species, I was



