columba livia. 537 



The Rock Dove. 



Columba Livia. (Linn.) 



" A snowy dove trooping with crows, 

 As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. "— Romeo and Juliet. 



This is the true ftock-dove, from which all our varieties of 

 domestic pigeons have sprung ; as the mallard is of our 

 domestic ducks, and the jungle fowl of our domestic hens. In 

 Shetland, where they abound, they come close to the huts of 

 the fishermen, and feed on the patches of corn land as if 

 domesticated. It is more slender than the last ; easily known 

 by the double black bars across the wings (which are longer), 

 the back and rump white instead of bluish grey. Its habits are 

 also different, frequenting and breeding on cliffs by the sea- 

 shore instead of trees or sandy downs ; eggs two, and white ; 

 abundant in the Orkneys and in the rocky islands of the 

 Mediterranean, and in immense numbers on the island of 

 Teneriffe. Nearer home, it is plentiful on the Bass Rock and 

 in the caverns between Auchmithie and the Redhead. In May 

 1893 a nest with deep-sitten eggs was got near the " Buddo 

 Rock," out Kinkell Braes. It was only thirteen feet up, and 

 reached by standing on a sheep flake. The nest, known 

 from the common " doocot doo" by having sticks instead of 

 straws, and the birds closely observed. The eggs were put 

 under a fantail, but only one hatched, which flew off to the 

 wider " doocot" of nature as soon as it could fly ; but it is easily 

 tamed. Mr Duncan, Sheriff-Substitute of Shetland, had one 

 twenty years ; another in Lerwick, which grew so pert and 

 troublesome in his house, he sent in a close basket to a friend 

 in the country ten miles away, and was surprised to see it next 

 morning sitting as usual above the door of his house — a good 

 proof that the homer pigeon — which in colour and shape it 

 resembles — though heavier, is sprung from the rock dove. The 

 male is easily known from the female, being larger, and havin^ a 

 bright metallic lustre round his neck like our common " blue 

 doo." If left the freedom of Nature, it is singular how soon 

 the finest bred pigeon — be it homer, carrier, jacobine, fantail, 

 nun, tumbler, pouter, barbary, horseman, smiter, ruffy, and all 

 the rest of the thirty and odd fancy pigeons — deteriorate, or rather 

 rise to the handsome little blue rock dove — the origin of them 

 all. Would that the hundred different and differing creeds, if 

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