160 PECULIAB HABITS. [CHAP. v. 



feeding-ground, with an uncertain kind of flight ; but 

 when alarmed, or going straight home, they fly with 

 very great rapidity. [The domesticated birds have ex- 

 actly the same habits.] They are easily tamed when 

 caught young. The eggs seem very difficult to get at ; 

 nothing but a ladder will enable a person to reach them, 

 and it is almost impossible either to procure such a lad- 

 der, or if procured, to carry it to the cavens where they 

 breed."* 



Great confusion has arisen, and erroneous theories 

 have been founded, by attributing to the Fancy Pigeons 

 the habits of the Blue Rocks, and vice versa, and so 

 proving the question by arguing from imaginary pre- 

 mises. Thus Temminck, to prove the original identity 

 of the above-mentioned birds, says " Our Dovehouse 

 Pigeons, voluntary captives, (are they captive at all ?) 

 nevertheless sometimes abandon the commodious esta- 

 blishments which we offer them, and desert our Dove- 

 cotes; they appear to throw themselves into their an- 

 cient state of nature, and select the crannies of old 

 towers, or hollow places in trees (?), in which they make 

 their nest and rear their young ; and these latter, whe- 

 ther by instinct or need, often return to install them- 

 selves afresh in the very buildings from which their 

 parents had fled." The next sentence explains the 

 whole matter, now that we have a clue. " Moreover, 

 these deserter Pigeons, which are also called Rock 

 Doves, do not differ in any manner from the Biset of 

 the Dovehouse, nor even from the wild Biset. "f 

 Now, the fancy Pigeons, the truly tame Pigeons, do 

 not reassume wild habits : when they lose their way, or 



* St. John's Tour in Sutherland, vol. i. p. 285. 

 t Hist, des Pig. et Gall., vol. i. p. 126. 



