406 BRITISH BIRDS. 



ranean and Black Seas, and on most of the adjacent mountain-ranges, as, 

 for instance, in the Atlas, the Apennines, and in the Parnassus. It is 

 found wherever there are rocks on the shores of the Red Sea, and, more or 

 less mixed with tame birds, runs wild throughout Egypt, Nubia, and 

 Abyssinia, Asia Minor, Persia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Turkestan, 

 Gilgit, the Altai Mountains, South Siberia, North China, and Japan. In 

 India and Ceylon a form occurs which has been inappropriately named 

 Columba intermedia, under the impression that it was an intermediate form 

 between the Rock-Dove and the Stock-Dove, having the dark rump * of 

 the latter, but the well-developed wing-bars of the former. This species 

 is the common domestic Pigeon of India, and appears to have been ex- 

 ported thence to most places where domestic Pigeons are kept. The semi- 

 domesticated Pigeons which are found breeding on many of the inland 

 cliffs, and on the churches and other buildings of Europe and Asia, from 

 Archangel to Constantinople, and from Moscow to Irkutsk, consist of 

 both these varieties and intermediate forms. These intermediate forms 

 occur in a purely wild state in Gilgit, where the range of the two spe- 

 cies coalesce, and have also been recorded from Palestine, Nubia, and 

 Abyssinia. A third variety of Rock-Dove (C. rupestris) is apparently 

 more distinct, and has the wing-bars somewhat less developed ; it has the 

 white rump of our Rock-Dove, but may at once be distinguished from it, 

 and also from C. intermedia, by having a broad subterminal white band 

 across the tail. The range of this form in the Eastern Palsearctic Region 

 is almost the same as that of our Rock-Dove, comprising Turkestan, the 

 Himalayas, the Altai Mountains, South-east Siberia, Mongolia, North 

 China, and Tibet. An example of this bird in my collection from Lake 

 Baikal, and another from Darjeeling, in both of which the white subter- 

 minal band is nearly obsolete on the two centre tail-feathers, lead to the 

 conclusion that this variety also interbreeds with the Rock-Dove. 



The true home of the Rock-Dove is on the rocky coasts bold head- 

 lands and beetling cliffs which are tunnelled by ocean-caves. Cliffs where 

 there are few caves are not so much frequented by the Rock-Dove ; thus 

 at Flamborough, although it is far from uncommon, it is not nearly so 

 numerous as on the wild rugged western shores of Scotland where so many 

 caves are found. The haunt of the Rock-Dove is wild and romantic, and 

 to make the bird's acquaintance it is necessary to visit some of the finest 

 scenery our islands can boast. The Rock-Dove often sits on the ledges of 

 the cliffs, and may be seen to dash rapidly out of the caves to fly upwards, 

 turn, and pass inland to the distant pastures. It is most commonly seen 



* As in the Stock-Dove and its allies, the colour of the rump appears to be always 

 correlated with that of the axillaries ; whilst the well-defined wing-hars are always cor- 

 related with a nearly black bill. Saunders appears to have copied Dresser's error in 

 describing the bill of the Rock-Dove as reddish brown. 



