NOTE-BOOK OF A NATUEALIST. 407 



Even in this vast brick Babylon, some pigeons breed 

 about Somerset House, both on the river and land side. 

 They are probably birds which have been domesticated, 

 and have escaped, preferring a comparatively wild life, 

 with the supplies afforded by the wharves and barges. 



The proneness to domestication in this bird, or rather 

 in one of the varieties from it, was strongly contrasted 

 with the impracticability of reconciling the ring-dove, 

 cushat, or wood -pigeon (Goluoiiha palumbus), to cap- 

 tivity, in Colonel Montagu's experiment. It is true that 

 he tamed them within doors, ^ so as to be exceedingly 

 troublesome ;' but he never could produce a breed, either 

 by themselves or with the tame pigeon. Two were bred 

 up by him together with a male pigeon, and were so 

 tame as to eat out of the hand ; but the genial spring 

 brought no signs of breeding, so they were suffered to 

 take their liberty in the month of June, by opening the 

 window of the room in which they were confined, the 

 Colonel thinking that the pigeon might induce them to 

 return to their usual place of abode, either for food or 

 to roost : but no ; they instantly took to their natural 

 habits, and the Colonel saw them no more. The pigeon 

 continued to return. 



The goura, it will be remembered, contrary to the 

 general habit of the Columbidse, laid only one egg, 

 and the passenger-pigeon, according to Wilson, lays 

 no more. In 1832, a pair of passengers began a nest 

 on the 25th of April, in a fir-tree planted in one of the 

 enclosures in the Garden in the Regent's Park. The hen 

 was the architect, but the cock was the labourer. Most 

 perseveringly did he collect and convey to the selected 

 spot, sticks, straws, and other nest materials. Every 

 time he came in with his building materials, he aligfhted 

 on the back of the hen, so as not to disturb any part of 

 the structure which she had fashioned. On the morning 

 of the 26th, one egg was laid, and the hen immediately 



