PIGEONS. 91 



zing sound as they fall. Impelled by this united 

 attack, the Pigeons rush forward to the head of the 

 gorge, and there meet their fate in the nets, which 

 stop their progress. By this means sometimes as 

 many as two hundred are caught at once. 



The American wild Pigeons, as well as our com- 

 mon Wood Pigeons (Columba cetias^ and palnmba), 

 the Stock Dove and Ring Dove, usually build in 

 trees; but not always, for in many situations, they 

 prefer holes in rocks and precipices, and even, in 

 some cases, old rabbit-burrows; when found in these, 

 the warreners fix sticks at the mouth of the hole, in 

 such a manner as to prevent the escape of the 

 young birds, but wide enough apart to allow the old 

 ones to feed them. In the eastern countries and the 

 Holy Land, the wild Pigeons almost invariably prefer 

 such situations to trees, thus confirming the words 

 of the prophet, who speaks of the Dove that maketh 

 her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth. Jeremiah 

 xlviii. 28. 



It is remarkable that, although our common 

 Wood Pigeon is suppssed to be the origin of all our 

 common House Pigeons, every attempt at taming 

 the young of these birds has failed; no sooner are 

 they released from confinement, notwithstanding 

 every attention and care, than they fly off at once to 

 their native woods, and return no more ; but the 

 Indians of North America seem to have found out 

 some method of changing their nature, as a traveller 

 found wild Pigeons amongst a tribe of Indians, which 

 were so tame, as to fly and return again. 



That birds of this species can form odd attach- 

 ments, we may learn from the following strange as- 



