The Common Pigeon.'] OF ORKNEY, 53 



numbers are killed, but they very soon recruit again, owing 

 to their being numerous breeders. A description of the rock- 

 pigeon is as follows : 



The wild pigeon from the rock weighs thirteen ounces and 

 a-half, the length thirteen inches, breadth twenty-five inches. 

 The colour of the head a fine blue ; the bill slender, hard at the 

 point ; the root of the upper mandible soft, and, as it were, 

 covered with meal. The breast a fine changeable green and 

 purple; the neck a shining copper-colour. The shoulders, 

 and lesser coverts, a light ash-colour ; the lower part of the 

 back, and under the wings, a fine white. The rump and tail- 

 feathers blue, with a cast of ash-colour, the latter barred at 

 the points with black. In some individuals the two outer- 

 most feathers of the tail have the external webs white. The 

 wings are crossed with two black bars : The legs short ; these 

 and the feet red, bare of feathers ; the toes divided to their 

 origin, with black claws *. 



A few white pigeons may be seen in the flocks from the 

 headlands and rocks, but these are infrequent, and probably 

 strayed birds from the pigeon-houses, which sometimes hap- 

 pens, where they intermix with the tame ones in their flight 

 for plunder. 



I have observed another species of pigeon in Orkney, in a 

 domestic state, but where they were brought from I am igno- 



* Among a great number I shot this winter (1775-6), found several varieties of 

 colour. One with the back and coverts curiously mottled with black feathers; 

 another had the ash-coloured feathers of its back tipt with gray, which produced 

 a curious waving, &c. 



