122 OUU DOMESTIC FOWLS. 



men of the ancient British, is a bird of wide 

 dispersion. It is a native of the British 

 islands, breeding upon the sea-side rocks. It 

 abounds in the Orkneys and Hebrides, along 

 the rocky shores of "Wales, and various other 

 places on our coasts, not excepting old towers, 

 and ruins a few miles inland, as M'e ourselves 

 can personally testify. Tliroughout Europe, 

 the same observations apply ; along the coasts 

 of France, Spain, and Italy, it frequents in 

 multitudes the same localities. The rocky 

 islands of the Mediterranean are its favourite 

 abodes; it was known of old in Greece; it 

 abounds in northern Africa, and along the 

 Asiatic shores far into India. And here we 

 cannot but advert to a passage in the Zool. 

 Proc. 1832, respecting a pigeon noticed by 

 colonel Sykes in his account of the birds of the 

 Dukhun. The passage is as follows : " Co- 

 lumba jEnas, Linn. Stock-pigeon, parwa of 

 the Mahrattas. The 'most common bird in 

 the Dukhun, congregating in flocks of scores, 

 and a constant inhabitant of every old dilapi- 

 dated building. Colonel Sykes saw the same 

 species on board ship on the voyage to Eng- 

 land brought from China. Irides, orange, etc. 

 The Dukhun bird differs from the European 



