CHAP.V.J DISPOSITION. 153 



But whenever we use the term " Dovehouse Pigeon" in 

 these pages, we wish to be understood to indicate not the 

 Blue Rock Pigeon, the Columba lima, but the CoJumba 

 affinis, to be next described. Both species tenant the 

 Dovecotes belonging to old English farms and Manor- 

 houses, in a little more than half-tame state. Both 

 birds occupy the rocks, ruins, and caves of Europe, in a 

 condition which has often been called feral, rather than 

 wild ; and both have at this moment an instinctive love 

 and aptitude for the same unmodifiable semi-domestic 

 life, in which we find them indulging for all preceding 

 ages of time, till historic records cease to aid our search. 

 The very early notices in ancient authors of the exist- 

 ence in their days of a gentler, tamer, more stay-at- 

 home race of Domestic Pigeons, is equally remarkable. 

 Most people imagine that if Blue Rock and real 

 Dovehouse Pigeons, such as we have specified, are 

 reared in confinement, and petted and indulged in oc- 

 casional flights and excursions, like Nuns, or Tumblers, 

 or Powters, they will henceforward become as confiding 

 in their manners, and as trustworthy as them in respect 

 to the extent of their wanderings. The circumstance 

 which first taught me the contrary, and led to a just ap- 

 preciation of the distinction laid down by Varro, was 

 this : I had purchased a pair of Nuns, supposing them 

 to be male and female ; they proved a couple of hens, 

 laying conjointly four eggs, and commencing incubation 

 in the regular family style, exactly as in a former work 

 I have stated that two female Swans will do, if they can- 

 not find a mate of the opposite sex. To incubate four 

 probably unfertilized eggs was a waste of vital warmth ; 

 so we removed these, and substituted a couple of Blue 

 Rock Pigeon's eggs, which were kindly supplied to me 



