CHAP. v.J HOCK PJGEONS OF SUTHERLAND. 159 



cular sides of the precipice by old Sans Fa9on, afforded 

 us capital shots ; but as all our victims found a watery 

 grave, we were soon convinced that to secure the killed 

 and wounded a boat would be necessary, in which to 

 coast along under the cliffs ; and it was now too late to 

 think of such an accessory."* 



Another acute sporting naturalist gives a companion 

 picture, sketched on British ground. 



"Blue Kock Pigeons live in all the caves on the coast 

 of Sutherland, and are to be seen flitting to and fro from 

 morning to night. 



"Although the wind had now fallen, the swell was tre- 

 mendous, dashing the spray half way up the rocks. It 

 was a curious sight to see the Rock Pigeons flying ra- 

 pidly into the caves, sometimes dashing like lightning 

 through the very spray of the breakers, scarcely topping 

 the crests of the waves, which roared and raged through 

 the narrow caverns where these beautiful birds breed. 

 The Bock Pigeons were very numerous here, and con- 

 stantly flying between their wild but secure breeding- 

 places and the small fields about Durness. I shot a 

 few of them, and found their crops full of green food, 

 such as clover, the leaves of the oat, &c. [Fancy 

 Pigeons rarely if ever practise the habit of eating 

 green food.] A number of small shells were also in the 

 crop of every bird. The Kock Pigeon is a very beauti- 

 fully-shaped little bird, rather smaller and shorter than 

 the common house Pigeon [i. e. the domestic Rock 

 Dove], of which it is plainly the original stock. They 

 seem very restless, seldom remaining long in one field, 

 but constantly rising and flitting away to some other 



* Vol. ii. pp. 64-6. 



