The Zoologist — September, 1873. 3691 



patience. The young ones were hatched in about sixteen days ; when they 

 first emerged from the egg they had a little yellow down on their bodies, 

 very little indeed, but just enough to say they were not quite naked; the 

 legs and back were flesh-coloured, but in three days changed to dark purple, 

 and this colour gradually altered, and has now turned to the usual red ; the 

 beak has become bright yellow, inclined to red. The young birds are now 

 able to fly strongly, and the old ones are breeding a second time. This 

 species seems to have been imperfectly understood by our publishing 

 ornithologists. Bewick makes but three species of Columba ; he calls them 

 CEnas, Palumbus and Turtur. Montagu also has but these three species 

 (see my edition of Montagu, p. 57): thus one species is omitted, and 

 Mr. Yarrell attempts to account for the omission in the following words : — 

 " Montagu appears to have considered the Rock Dove and Stock Dove but 

 as one species, applying the trivial name CEnas to the Rock Dove, which is 

 truly described, and giving no description of the Stock Dove. Bewick has 

 figured the Rock Dove under the specific name QEnas, and remarks that 

 •the Stock Dove, Rock Pigeon and Wood Pigeon, with some small 

 difi"erences, may be included under the same denomination.' " This seems 

 scarcely satisfactory. I agree with Yarrell in rejecting Bewick's view of 

 combining the three, but cannot agree with him in saying that " the Rock 

 Dove is truly described " under the name of CEnas by either author, for 

 Bewick clearly lays down as a distinctive character of CEnas that "the 

 lower part of the back and the rump are light gray or ash-colour," and he 

 has tinted the figure in order to represent this colour. Now if I were asked 

 to distinguish Livia from CEnas by any single character, I should say that 

 Livia always had the lower part of the back pure white, and CEnas always 

 gray or ash-coloured : I believe the white patch of the former is the most 

 diflBicult character to eradicate in our domestic pigeon, and at the same time 

 it is one of the most unmistakable proofs of its descent from Livia, or the 

 rock dove. Of the accuracy of Bewick's figure I have no doubt, but it was 

 probably drawn from a stuffed specimen of the domestic pigeon. This 

 particular variety closely resembles the Egyptian Columba Schimperi of 

 Bonaparte. — Edward Newman. 



Wild Pigeous Nesting in a Stable. — About ten days ago my gardener 

 drew my attention to a pair of wood pigeons which were continually 

 flying about an old stable — now a garden-house — not ten yards from the 

 kitchen door. This garden-house is ventilated by wooden boxes let into 

 the wall, and open at the top ; and yesterday in one of these boxes I found 

 two wood pigeons' eggs laid on the remains of a tomtit's nest of last year. 

 The pigeons had made no nest for themselves, as there were but three 

 small sticks in the box. — ' Field ' of August 2. 



[The title of this note does not quite agree with the text. Wild pigeons 

 may mean anytliing excepting tame ones ; but the term " wood pigeons ' 



