BLUE ROCK-PIGEON 133 
habitat of intermedia, whilst he only recognizes schimperi as occurring in 
Palestine, Egypt, Nubia, and Madeira. 
Nidification. Of its breeding in Great Britain, Seebohm writes : 
“The Rock-Dove breeds on the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, and all the 
adjacent islands, even including the district of St. Kilda, wherever the rocks 
are precipitous enough to give it protection and provide suitable breeding- 
places for it in their recesses. The range of this species is much wider than 
that of any other British Dove, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
and its exact limits are very difficult to determine, in consequence of the 
impossibility of discriminating between wild birds and those which have been 
or are in a semi-domesticated state. 
“It is a very early breeder, its eggs being often laid by the middle of 
March, and as it rears two, if not three or four broods in a season, fresh eggs 
may be obtained from that month till August or September. April and 
May are the principal breeding months. A few Rock-Pigeons build their 
nests in the crevices of the cliffs, but the greater majority resort to caves 
for breeding purposes. The eggs are only two in number, pure white in 
colour, oval and rather elongated in form; they vary from 1.5 to 1.38 inch 
in length, and from 1.2 to 1.1 inch in breadth. As a rule the eggs of this 
bird are rather more rotund in shape than that of the Ring-Dove, and they 
are always smaller than the normal eggs of that bird.” 
The nest is a rough platform of sticks and twigs without any lining, and 
very carelessly put together on some ledge of rocks. Whether the twigs 
employed for the purpose are picked up as dry twigs or are torn from trees 
there is nothing recorded, but from recollections of nests seen when I was a 
boy the former seemed invariably to be the case. This is what might be 
expected from a Pigeon that does not haunt trees, whereas the arboreal 
Pigeons certainly tear some of the material they use from the living tree. 
The eggs in the British Museum Collection are all within the measure- 
ments given by Seebohm. The texture is fine and close with a considerable 
gloss, and the most frequent shape is a rather long ellipse, truly oval eggs 
being most rare. 
The European Rock-Dove or Rock-Pigeon lives in very large 
colonies all the year round, living and roosting in the same caves as 
those they breed in. Generally speaking in western Europe and 
Great Britain these caves are situated on the more rocky cliffs on the 
coasts, but where there are inland cliffs sufficiently high and precipitous 
to afford them shelter, they may also sometimes be found frequenting 
these. In Eastern Europe and in Asia they are found haunting cliffs 
many hundreds of miles from the sea, and indeed seem equally common 
in the mountain-ranges as on the coasts. They certainly ascend to 
at least 12,000 ft. in the higher ranges which they frequent, and possibly 
ascend even higher than this during the hottest months of summer. 
Their note is a bubbling ‘“‘ coo,” too well-known to need description, 
and their flight, to those who have never seen the lightning speed of 
some of the larger Spine-tailed Swifts, has always been held up as the 
