76 COLUME^. 



and never perch on trees. If a pigeon-house is built in a dis- 

 trict where pigeon-houses are numerous, or near the native 

 locality of rock-doves, it is soon stocked without exertion on 

 the part of the owner ; and if it be whitewashed, it is stocked 

 the sooner. Hence the proverb, " Whiten the pigeon-house, 

 and the pigeons will come," which is applied metaphorically, 

 in order to show that, by neatness and regularity, friends will 

 be most certainly procured. In the case of the pigeons, it is 

 the utility and not the beauty of the whitened house that is 

 the attraction. The females never hatch fewer than three 

 broods in the year, and sometimes as many as twelve. The 

 shells of so many eggs require a great deal of carbonate of 

 lime ; the lime on the whitened pigeon-house attracts the 

 females, and as the rock-doves are constantly paired, the males 

 of course accompany them. So decided is that attraction to 

 them, that a whitened pigeon-house will entice the stock from 

 those that are neglected, thus making the proverb a literal 

 fact. 



It is probably a similar instinct which leads the pigeons 

 to cliffs on the sea-shore, in preference to inland ones. The 

 shells on the beach furnish them with an abundant supply of 

 lime. No doubt, the comparative uniformity of temperature 

 during the year in the sea cliffs, is a farther inducement ; and 

 brings the habit of the bird of the rocks still nearer to that 

 of the house bird. Indeed, the habits of common field 

 pigeons are so little changed, and the change is so exclusively 

 an act of their own, that they cannot be said to be in a state 

 of domestication. They are rock pigeons still, only they are 

 lodged better, and more conveniently for their food. 



Whether on the rock or in the pigeon-house, they are gre- 

 garious all the year round ; and, whatever may be the dis- 

 tance to which they may range during the day, they uniformly 

 return at night. The certainty with which they return, not- 

 withstanding the height at which they often fly, their pas- 



