164 INDIAN KOCK PIGEON. [CHAP. v. 



Continent ; and if anything would prove that the Fancy 

 Pigeons are not lusus natures from our Rock Pigeon, it 

 would be his supposition that " sports," as nearly as 

 possible coinciding with ours, are also derived from the 

 independent Indian original. He writes as follows : 



" Columba intermedia, Strickland, Ann. and Mag. 

 N. Hist., 1844, p. 39. Indian Rock Pigeon. These 

 birds rarely, if ever, perch upon trees, except under 

 peculiar circumstances, as when a Dovecote of Domestic 

 Pigeons is placed near a tree with large and convenient 

 shaped boughs, in which case the Pigeons will commonly 

 resort to the latter to sit and roost, but never to form 

 their nests. In their wild state it is probable that they 

 never perch at all, retiring to roost and nestle in caverns 

 and small hollows of rocks or sea-cliffs, in the absence 

 of which they select buildings that offer suitable re- 

 cesses, breeding in the capitals of pillars and whatever 

 other convenient nooks they find. Hence, when unmo- 

 lested, these house Pigeons soon become familiarised 

 with man, and require little encouragement to merge 

 into the domestic condition. 



" The common wild Blue Pigeon of India is most 

 closely allied to the European C. livia, but it is rather 

 a deeper slaty-gray, with invariably a deep ash-coloured 

 rump ; whereas C. livia has as constantly a pure white 

 rump : there appears to be no other distinction between 

 them, unless it be that the play of colours on the neck 

 is finer in the Indian bird. The same difference in the 

 colour of the rump is observable in the Domestic 

 Pigeons of the two countries, whenever these tend to 

 assume the normal colouring ; for the tame Indian 

 Pigeons are as clearly derived from the wild C. interme- 

 dia as those of Europe are from C. livia." 



