122 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



Or disparting like rocks, or as turrets high, strong, 

 They gracefully mov'd fields of ether along ; 



Sweet bird, thy truth shall Harlem's walls attest, 

 And unborn ages consecrate thy nest." 



Rogers's Pleasures of Memory. 



During the siege of Harlem when that city was reduced to 

 the last extremity, and on the point of opening its gates to a 

 base and barbarous enemy, a design was formed to relieve it; 

 the intelligence was conveyed to the citizens by a letter which 

 was tied under the wing of a Pigeon. Pliny also informs us, 

 that the same messenger was employed at the siege of Mutina. 



The habits and manners of the domestic pigeon are interest- 

 ing. The mode in which they feed their young, by placing their 

 bills in the young ones' mouths and ejecting the food from the 

 crop by a sort of pumping, is peculiar to this tribe. Their crop 

 and its secretion are also peculiar. See the Introduction. 



Although domesticated pigeons breed very often in the year, 

 the Rock-dove very rarely breeds more than twice or thrice; 

 the increased fecundity of the tame pigeon, arising, it is said, 

 merely from domestication ; but we do not yet know enough 

 either of the Stock-dove or Rock-dove in their wild state to describe 

 their habits with precision. The Sport of shooting- at pigeons 

 from a given distance is. a very common one in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London; it is extremely to be regretted that intel* 

 lectual man either cannot or will not find a more rational method 

 of employing his time. Robert Bloomfield in his Remains, 

 has touched upon this subject with his usual naive* 1 6 — the reader 

 who feels like myself on this subject, will be pleased to consult 

 the Birds and Insects' Post Office in that Poet's posthumous 

 volumes. — Drayton well expresses a habit of this tribe : 



Ci And turning round and round with cutty-coo." 



Noah's Ark. 



Some laws are in existence for the protection of pigeons as 



property ; they are rarely, if ever, it is presumed, acted upon. 



