252 TOUR IN SUT HERL AN DSHIRE. 



had to take her nightly walk. Many a danger from boy and 

 dog the poor animal must have gone through during her 

 peregrinations ; nothing, however, stopped her as long as the 

 kitten required her maternal attention. Notwithstanding 

 these amiable traits in the feline character, I must condemn 

 the cat as an animal who in general repays all the care and 

 kindness of her master with but little strength of affection. 

 Indeed her instincts seem to attach her only to the fireplace 

 or loft in which she has been accustomed to live, and not to 

 the kind hand which feeds her. Some instances of love for 

 their owners I have known ; but, in comparison with that 

 shown by dogs, they are rare and slight, although the domestic 

 bringing up of, and kindness shown to, cats are of tener greater, 

 and less mixed with the severe correction often inliicted upon 

 dogs. 



The sense which leads the carrier-pigeon hundreds of miles 

 in so short a time, and in so direct a course, is inexplicable. 

 After circling for a few moments, the bird decides unhesi- 

 tatingly on its exact line of flight, though it may never have 

 seen the country before, and lias not the assistance of the 

 example and guidance of any more experienced companions, 

 as is always the case with migrating birds. 



The carrier-pigeon is very beautifully shaped, with broad 

 chest and most powerfully jointed wings. Except as to the 

 head and feet, this kind of pigeon has very much the form of 

 a falcon, and is peculiarly well fitted for long-continued and 

 rapid flight. 



The woodpigeons in this country are to a certain degree 

 migratory, imitating, longo intervallo, the American passenger- 

 pigeons, in shifting their quarters from one part of the 

 kingdom to another, Being influenced in their migrations by 

 the abundance or scarcity of food. 



The common dove-cot or blue pigeon generally flies several 

 miles, morning and evening, to favourite feeding-places, 

 seldom seeking for food in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the pigeon-house. In the months of May and June the 

 house-pigeons have most difficulty in procuring food, the 

 crops being all unripe, and none of the seed-corn remaining 

 on the surface of the ground. At this season, too, few weeds 

 have ripened ; and the pigeons have therefore to depend in a 

 great measure for their own subsistence and that of their 

 young on the minute seed of the turnip, which is sown at 

 this period. It must require no little labour to enable them 



