167 



ROCK DOVE. 



EOCKIEE. 



Columba livia, 



SELBY. JENYNS. GOULD. 



Columba A Pigeon, or Dove. Livia (Qu&re, for Livida Black 

 and blue lead-colour.) 



IF you look at each and every one of the Pigeons that fly 

 about the ham and fold-yard, or rise in a flock from the open 

 field, nay, if you glance at any of those that hang up in the 

 poulterer's shop in the narrowest street, in London, in even 

 which, by the way, you can, if your lot is cast in the great 

 city, make frequent ornithological observations, and, losing 

 yourself for a moment in pleasing thought in the Haymarket, 

 the Turnstile, the Rookery, the Grove, or the Strand apolo- 

 gies now for the scenes that gave them their names of old 

 realize the 'rus in urbe,' you will see that every individual 

 bird, let the varied colours of its plumage be what they 

 may, has a patch of white over the tail. This will at once 

 shew you that it must derive its origin from the species at 

 present before us, which has the like distinguishing mark, 

 and not, as might naturally be supposed by any one who 

 was not cognizant of the fact, from the common Wild 

 Pigeon of the woods. 



The name of this species designates its habits of life, as a 

 dweller among rocks and cliffs of the sea-girt isle or the 

 mainland; but in the interior it puts up with old ruins or 

 towers. It is a native of the former situations in Denmark, 

 Norway, and Sweden, in the rocky islands of the Mediterranean, 

 eastward as far as Greece, and northward to the Ferroe 

 Islands; and likewise occurs in North Africa, Madeira, and 

 Teneriffe; and in Asia in Japan and Persia. 



