34 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



upon it,— being close to a house and tlie cote to wtich 

 they belonged. Still, not so near but that their thus 

 roosting seemed somewhat strange. I had often seen 

 my own pigeons light upon trees, and, for a time, stay 

 on them; but the trees were in close proximity with 

 their cot, some of them shadowing the gable against 

 which it is fixed. Here it was quite different, the elm 

 being at least fifty yards distant from the walls of the 

 dwelling, and as much more from the outbuildings, where 

 the birds had their home. 



This spectacle, so rare, leads to conjectural reflection. 

 Among ornithologists it is the almost universal belief 

 that the domestic pigeon, with all its varieties, is de- 

 scended from the Rock-dove [Colinnba livia). But this 

 species, so far as I know, never sets foot upon a tree ; 

 therefore, why should its tame progeny be doing so ? 

 Possibly, and very probably, the answer should be, that 

 the Stock-dove (0. oenas) has also had something to do 

 with the progenitorship, this species being in part a tree- 

 percher, but alike a rooster in cliffs ; where, as I have 

 lately discovered, it also, and often, makes its nest. 

 Moreover, domesticated pigeons from such paternity 

 would not infringe upon the well-known rule of size- 

 aggrandizement by domestication. With the Ring-dove 

 ((7. palumbus) it is different ; this, the largest of all, 

 having certainly had nothing to do with the procreation 

 of our tame breeds. 



