140 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



in myriads in company with the Alpine Swift. Here the sound of a 

 gun being fired, or any unaccustomed noise, brings the birds out in such 

 numbers that they have been hkened to locusts or to a swarm of bees 

 or white ants. 



If the Gaissoppa Falls however forms a good specimen of one of 

 their wilder haunts, free from the presence and influence of man, on the 

 other hand they will be found in almost equal numbers breeding in the 

 walls and buildings of great cities and famous forts. Over a great 

 portion of north-west India they are considered more or less sacred, 

 and scrupulously looked after and protected, and in many other places 

 where they are not actually held to be sacred, they are considered birds 

 of good omen, and aU shooting of them is strictly prohibited. In 

 reference to this protection afforded to the Eock-Pigeon, Adam writes : 

 " As the killing of the common Blue Pigeon is strictly prohibited, aU 

 through Rajputana, this species is very abundant. The native Govern- 

 ments allow a certain quantity of grain to be given to the Pigeons 

 each morning, and pay a man to feed them. Every morning at break 

 of day flocks of Pigeons may be seen hurrying into Sambhar from the 

 surrounding villages, and when the grain is thrown out to them the 

 fluttering and fighting of the thousands of birds is a sight well worth 

 seeing. When the grain has been consumed, each flock starts off for 

 home." 



Owing to the veneration in which they are held, many an unwary 

 or unthinking shooter has got into trouble over these birds, and has 

 unwittingly brought down on his head physical blows from the Hindu 

 inhabitants, and moral ones from the benign Government who looks 

 after the superstitions and prejudices of its Indian subjects with far 

 greater eagerness than it ^ pays to the safety and well-being of its 

 European ones. 



Where the Pigeons are not considered sacred, and no European 

 sportsman worthy of the name would intentionally hurt the rehgious 

 feehngs of any Indian, they afford splendid sport, for the Indian Blue 

 Eock-Pigeon is not one wit behind his European cousin in power of 

 flight and speed of movement. Away in the Himalayas, and in the 

 wild and mountainous country across the borders, the sportsman can 

 pursue his shooting amidst the flnest of scenery, or the most desolate 

 and forbidding of country, perhaps with the chance thrown in of being 



