LETTER I. 41 



which time their plumage becomes very beautiful, and their bills 

 and legs an intense orange yellow. They apparently fly about a 

 good deal at night, as their whistle may be frequently heard in 

 the dark, and often inland and in places where they are never 

 seen in the daytime. 



There is very little difference between the plumage of the 

 Eock Dove (Columba livia), male, female, and young. When first 

 off the nest, the young pigeon is of a darker shade of purple, with 

 very little lustre ; the adult male, when in full pride of feather, 

 is of a very pale, delicate tint of lavender, and his neck glistens 

 with the hue of the emerald and carbuncle. I suppose that of all 

 domestic animals none are so easily reclaimed as the Pigeon. 

 Though taken fully fledged from the nest, they immediately become 

 reconciled to the dovecot, and are as bold and familiar as the 

 other Pigeons, which have been born and bred for many genera- 

 tions back in slavery. How different is the Wild Duck ! 

 Though the eggs, taken early from the heathery nest by the loch 

 side, are placed in the barn under the careful bosom of an old 

 clucking hen, yet the young brood, though thus ushered into 

 the world in the midst of civilisation, from the moment of their 

 extrusion from the egg till their dying day, always exhibit their 

 hereditary distrust of man, and retain much of their original 

 wildness ; always ready to use their wings in preference to their 

 legs ; upon any insult ready to bid a long adieu, and return to 

 their paternal wildnesses ; and it is not till the third or fourth 

 generation that they become fully civilised, domestic farm-yard 

 waddlers. 



The Skua is a very rare bird about our shores, and I am very 



