96 



The Wood-pigeon. 



decreasing, in his time, in Hampshire, and there were then 

 only about a hundred in the woods at Selborne, but in former 

 times the flocks had been so vast, not only there, but in the 

 surrounding districts, that they had traversed the air morning 

 and evening like rooks, reaching for a mile together, and that, 

 when they thus came to rendezvous there by thousands, the 

 sound of their wings, suddenly roused from their roosting-trees 

 in an evening, rising all at once into the air, was like a sudden 

 rolling of distant thunder. 



Although the wood-pigeon is considered to be the original 

 parent of the tame pigeon, yet it does not seem possible to 

 tame the young of this bird, though taken from the nest quite 

 young. It is a bird which appears to hate confinement, and, as 

 soon as it has the opportunity, spite of all kindness and atten- 

 tion, it flies away to the freedom of the woods. 



-i>^\J44i,i. 



