COLUMBA LIVIA. (linn.) 

 Rock Dove. 



Less is known of the Rock Pigeon than of any of the genus, 

 its place of breeding being usually out of the reach of man, 

 in inaccessible rocks overhanging the sea ; a few of them, I 

 am informed, breed in the cliffs at Flamborough-Head, and 

 probably upon many parts of our coast ; they are more abund- 

 ant in Scotland, upon the Orkneys. The Rev. George 

 Low, in his Fauna Orcadensis says, that " they are found 

 round all the rocks of the main land and isles, where they 

 build in the caves, but retire farther in than the Auks, Gulls, 

 or most other sea-birds, except some of the Petrels." In the 

 Western Islands, my friend, Mr. Geo. C. Atkinson, found se- 

 veral of the eggs upon the Isle of Harris, they were laid without 

 any nest at the farthest extremity of caves and fissures in the 

 rocks, the eggs (as is the case with the whole of this genus) 

 were two in number, those which he brought home, and from 

 which the plate is drawn, were less of an oval than the Wood 

 Pigeon, this may not, however, be a distinction on which to 

 rely. 



