13 



to a boatman who was with me, thinking that they were probably tame Pigeons ; but he told me 

 there were no Pigeons kept at Uphill, and that they lived in the rocks. Shortly after this I had 

 a letter from a correspondent at Cheddar suggesting that some Pigeons he saw about the Cheddar 

 cliffs were wild Rock-Doves ; but I think it extremely probable that these, at all events, were 

 escapes. I have never met with the Rock-Dove in Guernsey or the Channel Islands. Professor 

 Ansted, however, mentions it in his list as being found in Guernsey and Sark ; but I am very 

 doubtful about this." 



As above stated, the Rock-Dove breeds in some numbers in the cliffs at Flamborough Head ; 

 and Mr. Hancock writes (B. of North. & Durh. p. 85): — "This is a resident, and is undoubtedly 

 the true Stock-Dove from which the domestic Pigeon is derived. A few birds breed occasionally 

 in the cliffs at Marsden, and in other localities on the sea-coast, both in Northumberland and 

 Durham, where the cliffs are high. But so like is this species to the common domestic Pigeon, 

 that it is difficult to say positively whether they are escaped birds or are really the wild form. 

 I have, however, in my collection a young individual, that was killed in December 1855, at 

 Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, which is certainly a true wild Rock-Dove. This species is in great 

 abundance, breeding in the cliffs at Gordenstown, near Covesea, in the neighbourhood of Elgin. 

 Here I had a capital opportunity of observing a large colony of these birds, and I shot several 

 specimens. A pair of Peregrines had taken up their abode and reared their young in a hollow 

 in the cliff close to the nesting-places of the Pigeons, and were feeding their nestlings on the 

 tender flesh of their neighbours, preferring it evidently to that of the Herring-Gulls that were 

 likewise breeding in the same locality, and flying about close to them unheeded and unheeding." 

 In Scotland this Pigeon is more numerous than in England, and, Mr. Robert Gray says, is 

 abundant along the whole coast-line of the west of Scotland, on the Outer Hebrides, and in 

 Orkney and Shetland. It is less numerous on the east than on the west coast, but breeds 

 regularly in many suitable localities. In Ireland it is tolerably common on the rocky portions 

 of the coasts, and on the small adjacent islands. 



In continental Europe it is very locally distributed ; for it is only an inhabitant of the 

 coast where it can find shelter amongst high rocks. In the Faeroes it is resident and very 

 numerous, breeding there twice in the season ; but in Scandinavia it is only found in one 

 locality, in the Stavanger fjord (59° N. lat.), where it inhabits some small islands. Early in this 

 century it was very numerous there ; but at the present time, Mr. Collett informs me, it has 

 become quite scarce, and will soon be extinct. Renneso is the island where it has always been 

 most numerous, and in 1830 large flocks were to be seen there, whence it straggled to Omo, 

 Klostero, Mostero, and the mainland. It is not only destroyed by man on account of the damage 

 it is said to do to the crops, but the Eagle Owl and Goshawk kill great numbers, the latter 

 species especially being a dire enemy to this bird. Nilsson says that Prosten Ekstrom saw one 

 on the island of Tjorn, in Bohusliin, in a flock of Columba oenas; but there appears to be some 

 doubt as to the authenticity of this statement. It does not occur in Finland, North Germany, 

 or Denmark in a wild state; but here and there in North Germany birds which have been 

 domesticated, but had become wild, are to be found ; and the same may be said as regards its 

 occurrence in Belgium, Holland, and Northern France, except that the true Columba livia is 



