458 



PIGEON. 



is white, passing into bluish-grey on the tail-coverts, 

 and into deeper grey on the tail-feathers, which are 

 crossed by a dusky band near the tips ; the greater 

 coverts and the secondary quills are crossed with 

 black, and form the bars already alluded to, when 

 the wings are closed ; the principal quills are blackish ; 

 the bill and feet are reddish ; the length is about 

 thirteen inches, and the stretch of the wings not 

 much less than two feet ; the plumage over the whole 

 body, both in the clothing feathers and in the feathers 

 of flight, is remarkably close and compact, and the 

 birds have great power of themselves in the air, even 

 when the wind blows with considerable violence. 



They would require this preparation at the hand 

 of nature in consequence of the severe storms which 

 they often experience at those places where they 

 reside and nestle. It does not appear that there is, 

 generally speaking, much food for them in the close 

 vicinity of these their natural habitations. But in order 

 to keep up the powerful and long-continued muscular 

 action which they must exert, they require a high 

 degree of action in the vital system, and, consequently, 

 a copious and frequent supply of food. In order to 

 obtain this they must range about in all weathers, 

 and consequently they require to have great manage- 

 ment of themselves in the air." On their long flights 

 in a state of nature they are not very often seen ; but 

 after they have taken up their abode in pigeon-houses, 

 their flight is lower ; yet even the ones which live in 

 small numbers about houses, and are fed without 

 much effort on their part, may often be seen wheel- 

 ing and driving very gracefully through the air, 

 apparently for no other purpose than that of exer- 

 cising their wings. 



It is highly probable that the labour which they 

 feel in returning from long distances when they are 

 heavy with feeding, is one of their great inducements 

 to take up their abodes in artificial pigeon-houses. 

 The general belief, and we have no reason to doubt 

 the truth of it, is that they are attracted by whitened 

 pigeon-houses, much more than by those which are 

 of a dark colour. There may be two reasons for this ; 

 first the whitened pigeou-house is a more conspicuous 

 object than the other; and, secondly, a considerable 

 quantity of carbonate of lime may be required for the 

 eggs of the females, which, though only two in each 

 hatch, are often numerous in the course of the year. 

 Even under the most unfavourable circumstances, 

 there are seldom fewer than three hatches in they ear, 

 and sometimes there are as many as a dozen. The 

 latter of course takes place only in rich pastures ; but 

 still the birds are highly prolific. 



In those lofty cliffs overhanging the sea, which are 

 the favourite resorts of rock pigeons, caves are the 

 places in which they repose and nestle, and rear 

 their broods ; and the darker the cave is, it is under- 

 stood to be the more favourable for them. Such 

 caverns are chosen as nesting places by many sea- 

 birds which find their food on the waters ; but though 

 the rock pigeon takes nothing from the water, it 

 inhabits farther into the cave than the most habitual 

 diver, or the bird most discursive over and dependent 

 upon the sea. It is true that these birds are often 

 found on the beaches walking about and picking up 

 something ; but whether they pick up any part of 

 their food there, or merely bits of shells and small 

 pebbles, it is not easy to say. 



Upon the rocky parts of the west of Scotland, and 

 the bold shores of the western isles, some of which are 



rocky and caverned enough, these birds abound per- 

 haps more than in any other parts of the British 

 islands. As the shores of the main land are exposed 

 to the winds of the Atlantic, and the comparatively 

 small islands are surrounded by that ocean, the low 

 grounds exposed to the west are seldom covered 

 with snow for any length of time, and thus the birds 

 easily find a supply of food. The numbers which 

 congregate on one shore, and even in one cave, if it 

 be large and lofty enough, are often very great ; and 

 the boatmen who convey strangers to visit the caves 

 into which the tide enters for a considerable distance, 

 very generally take advantage of the pigeons, as a 

 means of giving their fare a surprise, which is rather 

 startling to those to whom it is entirely new. They 

 row into the cave as silently as possible until they 

 have advanced some little way. Then the steersman 

 seizes a fowling piece which has been stowed away, 

 and the rowers cease pulling. In an instant, and 

 before the passengers have time to inquire what is 

 the matter, the musket is discharged ; the rowers 

 thunder on the gunwale with their oars, and out dash 

 the pigeons in a torrent flood, making so loud a rust- 

 ling and rumbling with their wings, that those to 

 whom it is a novelty, can hardly persuade themselves 

 that the whole materials of the cave arc not hurling 

 down, in order to entomb them in a majestic sepul- 

 chre. But the din, though loud and not unalarming, 

 does not last long, as the pigeons are fully as much 

 affrighted as the passengers ; and as far as the roof 

 of the cavern can be seen, it is as stable as ever, and 

 not an ounce of stone is loosened from its place. 

 Fingal's cave, in the wild and beautifully green 

 Isle of Staffa, which isle is perforated through 

 and through under the low-water mark, and abso- 

 lutely rocks, like an unstable thing, before the swell 

 of the Atlantic, when the majesty of that ocean is up, 

 used to be, if it is not still, a favourite place for this 

 kind of exhibition. The cave is large and lofty, and 

 if the interior of it is not absolutely dark, it is dim 

 twilight ; and as much of the roof consists of portions 

 of basaltic columns hanging as it were by simple con- 

 tact with each other, there are few roofs of caverns, 

 the fall of which would be more likely to be expected 

 by one who does not understand the firm texture and 

 stable union of this wonderful architecture of nature. 

 Another thing, basalt is perhaps the most sonorous 

 of all rocks, and therefore the echoes of the cave 

 itself go to swell the sound made by the numerous 

 wings of its inhabitants. 



When the birds are thus disturbed, it is generally 

 in the time of their repose ; and hence, after they 

 have escaped from the cave, they fly no farther than 

 they may apprehend that the danger is to follow 

 them. They do not, however, return immediately, 

 but rise to a considerable height in the air, and keep 

 wheeling about as if to show how vain it would be to 

 follow them in that element. Although, however, 

 they are by this means quite safe from the alarm 

 below, and would of course have been so though 

 they had remained in the cave, there is sometimes an 

 enemy above them far more dangerous, at least to 

 one or two, than that which has caused them so much 

 alarm. If one of the large and powerful falcons of 

 the north happens to be above the pigeons in the 

 sky, down he comes with the rush of a thunderbolt, 

 and, striking right and left, tumbles two or three of 

 them down, and then alights to eat them at his 

 leisure. 



