194 DOMESTIC pigeons: Chap. VI. 



diversity; some specimens are identical in every feather (I speak 

 after actual comparison) with the rock-]iii;ooii of the Shetland 

 Islands ; others are chequered, like C. cfnuis from the cliffs of 

 England, bnt generally to a greater degree, being almost black over 

 the whole back; others ai'e identical with the so-called 0. intermcdi't 

 of India in the degree of blneness of the cronp ; whilst others have 

 this part very pale or very dark blue, and are likewise chequered. 

 So much variability raises a strong suspicion that these birds are 

 domestic pigeons which have become feral. 



Fi'om these facts it can hardly be doubted tliat C. livia, affinh, 

 intermedia, and the forms marked with an interrogation by Bonaparte 

 ought all to be included under a single species. But it is quite 

 immaterial whether or not they are thus ranked, and whether some 

 one of these forms or all are the progenitors of the various domestic 

 kinds, us far as any light can thus be thrown on the ditferences 

 between the more strongly-marked races. That common dovecot- 

 pigeons, which ai"e kept in various parts of the world, are descended 

 from one or from several of the above-mentioned wild varieties of 

 C. Jivia, no one who compares them will doubt. But before making 

 a few remarks on dovecot-pigeons, it should be stated that the wild 

 rock-pigeon has been found easy to tame in several countries. We 

 have seen that Colonel King at Hythe stocked his dovecot more 

 than twenty years ago with young wild birds taken at the Orkney 

 Islands, and since then they have greatly multiplied. The accurate 

 Macgillivi-ay '^ asserts that he completely tamed a wild rock-pigeon 

 in the Hebrides ; and several accounts are on records of these pigeons 

 having bred in dovecots in the Shetland Islands. In India, as 

 Captain Hutton informs n;ie, the wild rock-pigeon is easily tamed, 

 and breeds readily with the domestic kind ; and Mr. Blyth "^ asserts 

 that wild birds come freqiiently to the dovecots and mingle freely 

 with their inhabitants. In the ancient ' Ayeen Akbery ' it is written 

 that, if a few wild pigeons be taken, " they are speedily joined by a 

 thousand others of their kind." 



Dovecot-pigeons are those which are kept in dovecots in a semi- 

 domesticated state ; for no special care is taken of them, and they 

 procure their own food, except during the severest weather. In 

 England, and, judging from MM. Boitard and Corbie's work, in 

 France, the common dovecot-nigeon exactly resembles the chequered 



'^ ' History of British Birds,' vol. i. rock-pigeon came and settled in his 

 pp. 275-28'-i. Mr. Andrew Duncan dovecot in Balta Sound in the Shet- 

 tamed a rock-pigeon in the Shetland land Islands, and bred w th his 

 Islands. Mr. James Barclay, and Mr. pigeons ; he has also given we other 

 Smith of Uyea Sound, both say that instances of the wild rock-pigeon 

 the wild rock-pigeon can be easily having been taken young and breed- 

 tamed ; and the former gentleman ing in captivity. 



fisse-rts that the tamed birds breed '" 'Annals and M'g. of Xat. 



four times a year. Dr. Lawrence History,' vol. six. 1847, p. 103, and 



Eduionistone informs me that a wild vol. for 1857, p. 512. 



