Rock-Dove. 321 



and that on one occasion, when I was requested by the dragoman 

 to procure pigeons for the commissariat, a lucky shot with a 

 green cartridge into a flock feeding on the ground resulted in 

 picking up twenty birds, which at once filled the basket, to the 

 inexpressible disgust of the Arab attendant, whose duty it was to 

 carry the load through a long day's march and under a tropical 

 sun to the Nile boat. That it is a very old inhabitant of Egypt 

 is clear from the hieroglyphics, in which it may be unmistakably 

 recognised notably at the temple of Medinet Haboo, at Thebes, 

 whereof the date is given as early as B.C. 1297.* 



The late Mr. Waterton pointed out that the Rock-Dove, 

 though it would freely perch by day, was never known to roost 

 on trees during the night, nor to pass the night in the open air, 

 except in cases of the greatest emergency, showing its natural 

 propensity to retire to holes and caves in the rocks ; hence its 

 great attachment to the dovecot in which it is bred, which it 

 seldom deserts without great provocation. There are instances 

 of the lower stage of church-towers, immediately below the bells, 

 having been originally built for a ' Columbarium/ of which we have 

 one example at Collingbourn Ducis, in this county ; and as there 

 is scarcely another example in England, I am glad to add a few 

 details, for which I am indebted to the rector, the Rev. Canon 

 Hodgson. ' The dovecote in our church-tower/ he says, ' is 

 evidently part of the original structure. In Mr. A. Blomfield's 

 " Report on the Church prior to its restoration in 1877," he 

 describes it thus : " The western tower is a substantial structure 

 of late Perpendicular date, and has some interesting features. 

 The walls of the clock stage are constructed with internal niches, 

 so as to form a dovecote or pigeon-house, an entrance (now 

 closed) being left on the south side." This entrance is an 

 aperture through the south wall of the tower, two feet wide by 

 one and a half feet high, with dripstone above and alighting- 

 ledge below. It is boarded up on the inside to prevent birds 

 from getting in and damaging the clock-works. The niches go 

 all round the inside walls, except where the doorway is at the 

 Adams in Ibis for 1864, p. 26. 



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