18 columbid^e. 



the south, and generally singly, never more than two toge- 

 ther ; very few alighted. On the 24th the vessel was, at sunset, 

 90 miles E. of Sicily, Syracuse being the nearest land : on the 

 27th, 45 miles from Zante, and 60 west of the Morea. On the 

 29th of April one was seen near Navarino ; and another on the 

 6th of May in the island of Syra : — at the end of this month, I 

 observed numbers among the light and tender foliage in the 

 spacious gardens of the old seraglio at Constantinople. I had 

 remarked the Egyptian turtle dove (Col.tBgyptiaca,IjSLth..) a few days 

 before, amid the sombre but magnificent cypresses, which .(attain- 

 ing apparently to 80 feet) rival the Lombardy poplar in altitude, 

 and tower — a forest of evergreen spires — above the very exten- 

 sive Turkish and Armenian cemeteries of Smyrna. 



The Passenger Pigeon (Columba migratoria) is recorded by Dr. 

 Fleming as having been taken in Scotland, and is said to have been 

 subsequently noticed in the same country. But as the species is occa- 

 sionally brought to the British Islands in vessels and kept by pigeon- 

 fanciers, it seems to me that the individuals alluded to may probably 

 have escaped from confinement. There is no doubt, however, that this 

 species could better cross the Atlantic than some others which are 

 considered to have done so. The passenger pigeon is also said to have 

 been met with in Norway and Russia.* 



The Collared or African Turtle Dove, Columba risoria, Linn, 

 (a bird of a buffish-brown, or deep " stone colour," with a narrow 

 black collar encircling the hinder part of the neck), is much kept 

 by bird-fanciers in this country, and often called simply turtle dove. 

 I remarked this species in 1826 to be domesticated like our common 

 pigeon at the Hague in Holland, where it was seen flying about the 

 city. I have likewise observed it in some of the towns of Italy. 



* Temminck, Man d'Omit. de l'Eur. part iv. p. 311. 



