2o8 THE ROCK DOVE 



birds exposed for sale with Ring Doves, in London, on January 

 4. It resorts in spring to the neighbourhood in which it was bred, 

 as a convenient place for rearing its own young, and at the end of 

 summer repairs to woods and groves better adapted for suppljdng 

 it with its favourite food, acorns and beech-mast. There it flocks 

 together with Ring Doves, vast numbers of which assemble in 

 winter in some districts, and when the fowler plies his occupation, 

 shares their fate. It is, however, by no means so common a bird 

 as the Ring Dove at any season, nor is it so generally distributed. 

 In the North it is certainly only a summer visitor ; and, on the 

 other hand, it is most abundant in the south of Europe and in Africa 

 during winter. 



THE ROCK DOVE 



COLUMBA LIVIA 



Plumage bluish ash, lighter on the wings ; rump white ; neck and breast 

 lustrous with green and purple reflections, without a white spot ; two 

 transverse black bands on the wings ; primaries and tail tipped with 

 black ; rump white ; outer tail-feather white on the outer web ; irides 

 pale orange ; bill black ; feet red. Length twelve and a half inches. 

 Eggs white. 



The Rock Dove, though a bird of extensive range, is less generally 

 known in its natural condition than either of the other British 

 species. As its name imports, its favourite place of resort is the 

 rocky coast ; but this it frequents, not because it has any pre- 

 dilection for the seashore and its productions, but that its instincts 

 teach it to make lofty rocks its stronghold, just as the natural 

 impulse of the Ring Dove is to find safety in the forests. If this 

 species is the original of all the numerous varieties of tame Pigeon, 

 it must inhabit most countries of the eastern hemisphere ; for a 

 pigeon-fancier's dove-cot, to be complete, must contain several 

 sorts which were first brought from remote regions ; and we know 

 that in Egypt, Phoenicia, and Persia, Pigeons had a mythological 

 importance at an early date. It is said that the Pigeons which 

 have estabhshed themselves in various public buildings of con- 

 tinental cities, as Saint Mark at Venice, and Pont Neuf at Paris, 

 are exclusively Rock Pigeons ; and I have seen it stated that they 

 frequent the towers of Canterbury Cathedral ; but it is possible 

 that these may be in all cases derived from tame birds escaped 

 from domestication, and resuming, to a certain extent, their wild 

 habits and original plumage. That they resort to ruinous edifices 

 near the sea in retired districts is beyond question, as I have seen 

 them flying about and alighting on the walls of an old castle in the 

 island of Kerrera, near Oban, in the Western Highlands, indif- 

 ferent, seemingly, whether they nestled in the lofty cliffs on the 

 mainland, where they are mmierous, or on the equally secure ruins 



