14 COLUMBID^E. 



the Stock Dove which has been proved to inhabit the 

 cliffs, as in Dorsetshire, the Isle of Wight, and Yorkshire ; 

 and it seems to the Editor that the only localities in which 

 true wild birds can be with certainty indicated as breeding 

 are those in which the rocks offer deep caves, or at least 

 cavities and fissures. Cliffs of this description are compara- 

 tively rare on the coast of England, and it is in the north 

 and west, and along the rugged, sea-scooped shores of 

 Scotland, Ireland, and their islands, that the true home of 

 the really wild Rock Dove must be sought. There can 

 be no doubt that this, with two or three closely-allied 

 sub-species or geographical races, is the stock whence our 

 domestic Pigeons have sprung, and a very large proportion 

 of the latter have varied so little from the parent stem, that 

 it is often extremely difficult to distinguish between true- 

 bred wild birds and those which have been at least partially 

 domesticated. Both the wild stock, and the varieties pro- 

 duced from it, have been exhaustively treated by the late 

 Charles Darwin,* and to his masterly arrangement of facts 

 the present abstract is much indebted. 



In the eastern and southern districts of England, localities 

 suited to its habits are few and far between, and even in 

 some places which apparently offer the requisite conditions, 

 such as Guernsey, Sark and the smaller Channel Islands, 

 the Rock Dove seems to be little known ; in Devonshire it is 

 also rare and very local, and only a few frequent the cliffs of 

 Cornwall. It can be traced along the coast of Wales to the 

 Isle of Man, to the northwards of which its numbers increase 

 until almost every district up to the confines of the Hebrides, 

 the Orkneys, and the Shetlands, has its " Ua' Caloman," or 

 " doo-cave." In Ireland also, especially on the rugged, 

 wave-worn crags of the western side, it is abundant. On 

 the eastern side of England the breeding-places of this 

 species are necessarily few, and even in Yorkshire and 

 Northumberland the birds found in them are open to the 

 suspicion of not being pure wild birds ; but along the coast 

 of Scotland, from the Bass Rock upwards, the wild Rock 

 * Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication, i. pp. 137-235, ed. 1 875. 



