BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



rowof holes, placed at thebottom of a"dummy" 

 window with a pointed top. 



Pigeons are still the tenants of this most at- 

 tractive cote. About fifty pairs occupy it in the 

 breeding-season, reinforced bynew-comers to- 

 wards autumn, when, as the owner tellsus, wild 

 pigeons seem glad to take refuge from the at- 

 tacks of the numerous peregrine falcons then 

 on passage. 



Coming to Fifeshire,wefindacounty still rich 

 in dovecotes, though manv have disappeared 

 since the close of the eighteenth century, when 

 thenumberexistingis stated to have been three 

 hundred and sixty. There was alocalsayingthat 

 the usual possessions of a Fifeshire laird com- 

 prised "a puckle land, a lump o' debt, a doocot, 

 and alawplea" — no very rich inheritance. Two 

 of those still remaining shall be noticed here as 

 being readily accessible. 



The first is in the immediate vicinity of 

 Rosyth Castle, an old tower which, formerly 

 standing on a strip of land which was an island 

 at high water, has now been absorbed into the 

 vast enclosure of the new naval dockyard, and 

 looksforlornenough.surroundedas it is by gas- 

 280 



