Our Wild Pigeons. 27 



tliat of tlie cote — the ■whitish fleck over the rump, con- 

 spicuously seen on both as they spread their wings in 

 flight, but never observed in either Quest or Stock-dove. 



But there is no need of this reference to colour for 

 proof of their identity as species. Gilbert White, grop- 

 ing in the darkness of a century and a half ago, found 

 light enough to point it out, when he said, speaking of 

 Sir Roger Mostyn's House doves in Carnarvonshire — 

 " Though tempted by plenty of food and gentle treat- 

 ment they can never be prevailed on to inhabit their cote 

 for any time, but as soon as they begin to breed betake 

 themselves to the fastnesses of Ormshead, and deposit 

 their young in safety amidst the inaccessible caverns and 

 precipices of that stupendous promontory." 



Similar testimony is given by Edwards, the self-taught 

 naturalist of Scotland, who states that House pigeons near 

 the sea-coast in his neighbourhood not only betake them- 

 selves to the cliffs, but there interbreed with the Rock- 

 doves, so that it is now impossible to procure one of the 

 latter of pure strain and natural colouring. We have 

 the Rock-dove in Herefordshire. Mr. W. Lloyd, a local 

 naturalist, reports it as breeding on the Stanner rocks, 

 a basaltic upheaval near the border line between the 

 counties of Hereford and Radnor. It has also a nesting- 

 place in the cliffs overhanging the Wye by the celebrated 

 Symond's Yat, and all down through Monmouthshire, 

 to Caldy Island. There, a fortiori, ihej should be found, 

 since these cliffs are nearer to its known habitat on the 

 sea-coast. 



The Rock-dove never makes its nest in trees, and is 

 not known ever to perch upon them, another point of 

 resemblance to the House pigeon confirmatory of the fact 

 of their having a common origin. 



