134 BIRDS 



Turtle Dove {Turtur turtur) 

 According to Hutton (1871) these birds were imported into Auck- 

 land and Nelson. They have been confused with the preceding species. 



* Common Pigeon; Rock Dove (Columba livia) 

 Pigeons have gone wild in many parts of New Zealand, and I have 

 accumulated a good deal of information in regard to them, especially 

 in connection with reversion to the wild rock-dove type. Mr W. H. 

 Gates of Skippers, near Lake Wakatipu, informs me (April, 1916): 



Fifteen miles down stream from here there are a lot of wild pigeons 

 inhabiting the gorges in all sorts of inaccessible sheltered places. They have 

 a strain of nearly every pigeon tribe. Some make an attempt to "tumble." 

 Some are nearly white with small heads ; some biscuit-colour ; slate ; dark- 

 brown, white breast, with bronze neck and shoulders; and others with 

 many colours mixed. 



In Strath-Taieri, wild pigeons occur in thousands along the rocky 

 faces of the Rock and Pillar Range from Middlemarch to Waipiata. 

 Mr W. Sainsbury (April, 1916) says they are of all colours, and 

 apparently of all breeds, and several of them have the "tumbling" 

 habit. One which he brought me was slaty-blue in colour, with the 

 black bars on the wings, but not well defined; black bar at the 

 extremity of the tail, and the outer tail feathers edged with white. 

 The majority of the wing pinions were tinged with red on the inner 

 web. The abdomen and leg feathers were pale slaty-grey. The crop 

 of this bird was quite full of wheat; but I am informed that the 

 sharp winter of Central Otago — ^when the hills are covered with 

 snow, and the ground is frozen hard for weeks at a time — is most 

 severe upon the pigeons, which fall into very poor condition before 

 the advent of each spring. 



In the Galloway Station, Central Otago, where they have gone 

 wild in numbers, they live both in the rocks and in holes in clay 

 banks in the wilder districts. 



Forty years ago wild pigeons in thousands occupied the rocks in 

 the Duntroon district, inland from Oamaru, finding shelter in the 

 numerous holes which occur in this limestone region. But shooting 

 in season and out of season, and the eating of poisoned grain, have 

 reduced their numbers to such an extent that they are now only 

 found in hundreds. Mr Alfred Labes of Duntroon, who has looked 

 into this question for me, states that they are now (1916) very timid 

 and most difficult to shoot, and if their nests are disturbed they do 

 not build again in the same locality. It is evident that from time to 

 time tame pigeons join the wild ones, for a tumbler was observed 

 among the latter, and a carrier, with a ring on its leg, was shot 

 among them. In regard to colour, Mr Labes states that most of the 



