BLUE ROCK-PIGEON 133 



habitat of intermedia, whilst he only recognizes schimperi as occurring in 

 Palestine, Egypt, Nubia, and Madeira. 



Nidification. Of its breeding in Great Britain, Seebohm writes : 

 " The Rock-Dove breeds on the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, and all the 

 adjacent islands, even including the district of St. Kilda, wherever the rocks 

 are precipitous enough to give it protection and provide suitable breeding- 

 places for it in their recesses. The range of this species is much wider than 

 that of any other British Dove, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 

 and its exact limits are very difficult to determine, in consequence of the 

 impossibility of discriminating between wild birds and those which have been 

 or are in a semi-domesticated state. 



" It is a very early breeder, its eggs being often laid by the middle of 

 March, and as it rears two, if not three or four broods in a season, fresh eggs 

 may be obtained from that month till August or September. April and 

 May are the principal breeding months. A few Rock-Pigeons build their 

 nests in the crevices of the cliffs, but the greater majority resort to caves 

 for breeding purposes. The eggs are only two in number, pure white in 

 colour, oval and rather elongated in form ; they vary from 1.5 to 1.38 inch 

 in length, and from 1.2 to 1.1 inch in breadth. As a rule the eggs of this 

 bird are rather more rotund in shape than that of the Ring-Dove, and they 

 are always smaller than the normal eggs of that bird." 



The nest is a rough platform of sticks and twigs without any lining, and 

 very carelessly put together on some ledge of rocks. Whether the twigs 

 employed for the purpose are picked up as dry twigs or are torn from trees 

 there is nothing recorded, but from recollections of nests seen when I was a 

 boy the former seemed invariably to be the case. This is what might be 

 expected from a Pigeon that does not haunt trees, whereas the arboreal 

 Pigeons certainly tear some of the material they use from the living tree. 



The eggs in the British Museum Collection are all within the measure- 

 ments given by Seebohm. The texture is fine and close with a considerable 

 gloss, and the most frequent shape is a rather long ellipse, truly oval eggs 

 being most rare. 



The European Rock-Dove or Rock-Pigeon lives in very large 

 colonies all the year round, living and roosting in the same caves as 

 those they breed in. Generally speaking in western Europe and 

 Great Britain these caves are situated on the more rocky cliffs on the 

 coasts, but where there are inland cliffs sufficiently high and precipitous 

 to afford them shelter, they may also sometimes be found frequenting 

 these. In Eastern Europe and in Asia they are found haunting cHffs 

 many hundreds of miles from the sea, and indeed seem equally common 

 in the mountain-ranges as on the coasts. They certainly ascend to 

 at least 12,000 ft. in the higher ranges which they frequent, and possibly 

 ascend even higher than this during the hottest months of summer. 



Their note is a bubbling " coo," too well-known to need description, 

 and their flight, to those who have never seen the lightning speed of 

 some of the larger Spine-tailed Swifts, has always been held up as the 



