240 BRITISH LAND BIRDS. 



British habitats. Their food consists principally 

 of grain and seeds, and they also eat several 

 species of snail shells. There is a proverb which 

 says, " whiten the pigeon-house, and the pigeons 

 will come ;" meaning, that by cleanliness andgood 

 housewifery friends are drawn to you. It is, how- 

 ever, literally true, that a whitened pigeon-house is 

 preferred by the birds. The reason for this is sup- 

 posed to be that they like the lime, which is useful to 

 them, their eggs being composed partly of car- 

 bonate of lime, and it is for this substance, 

 doubtless, that they generally frequent chalk cliffs. 

 A singular anecdote of the effect of music on a 

 pigeon, is related by John Lockman, in some 

 reflections concerning operas prefixed to his 

 musical drama of Eosalinda. He was staying at a 

 friend's house whose daughter was a fine per- 

 former on the harpsichord, and observed a pigeon, 

 which, whenever the young lady played the song 

 of " Speri-si," in Handel's opera of Admetus, would 

 descend from a neighbouring dove-house to the 

 window of the room in which she sat, and listen 

 to it, apparently with the utmost attention and 

 pleasure. When the song was finished, the bird 

 always returned immediately to the dove-house, 

 paying no attention to any other music which was 

 played. 



Whether on the rock or in the pigeon-house, 



