ROCK DOVE. 67 



selected. Nevertheless, as the name indicates, 

 rocks and caves are the natural resting places, 

 and a curious assemblage of birds, very different 

 in their natures, may sometimes be observed in 

 and about the entrance of these sea worn caverns. 

 An eagle, or pair of peregrine falcons, may claim 

 the centre of the precipice ; a little lower, gulls 

 and guillemots may nestle; cormorants may occupy 

 the mouth of the cave, and jackdaws and starlings 

 may chatter in its outward rents and crevices ; 

 the murmur of the Rock Dove, from its shelves, 

 fills the interior, when it can be distinguished 

 from the noise of the surge at its entrance. 



As the last species particularly frequented the 

 southern parts of our island, so do we find the 

 Rock Dow, frequent, and most numerous, towards 

 the north. We have indeed few English localities 

 mentioned. Mr. Selby states, that they are found 

 in the cliffs of Caldy Island in South Wales ; and 

 we are informed by a letter from Mr. Yarrell, on 

 the authority of Dr. Moore and Mr. Couch, that 

 they breed on some parts of the Devonshire and 

 Cornish coasts. In Scotland the localities are nu- 

 merous ; on the southern shores, St. Abb's Head, 

 the Bass Rock, and Isle of May, produce them ; 

 but as the domestic varieties are occasionally seen 

 in their company, it may be questioned, as Pro- 

 fessor Macgillivray * remarks, whether they are 

 now quite pure in these stations. Scarcely any 



* See an interesting account of this species, Macgillivray 's 

 British Birds, i. p. 268. 



