
26. 
appearance, and rose to stately cliffs, at whose foot 
broke the foaming surge with a dull and sullen sound, 
subdued and deadened to our ears, by the fearful 
height we had attained above the angry and boiling 
billows. This was the resort of our feathered foes, 
who started from their nests by the stones hurled 
over the perpendicular sides of the precipice by old 
Sans Facon, afforded us capital shots; but as all our 
victims found a watery grave, we were soon con- 
vinced that te secure the killed and wounded a boat 
would be necessary, in which to coast along under 
the cliffs ; and it was now too lafe to think of such 
an accessory.” (The Dove cot and the Aviary, page 
158-9. ; 
Nature has endowed the pigeon with instinets 
enough for every difficulty of living. Their natural 
dispositien to range far and wide for subsistence,— 
their industry and labour in the enjoyment of inde 
pendence, enable them to calculate their means, and 
to estimafe them by their wants, and if they find the 
provision at home scanty, they seek supplies abroad. 
3 
rc 
[f they suffer inconvenience from the distance at 
which food is to be found, to make up for what is 
wanting at home, they abandon the distant habita~ 
tion and affiliate themselves with some more acces- 
sible community. ‘Their independence renders them 
always adaptive in their habits, and nobody need 
fear difficulties which the natural instincts of the bird _ 
are not sufficient to overcome. P 
i? Pigeons are thirsty creatures: they like the 
neighbourheod of water, and seem heartily to enjoy 
the act of drinking.” This seems to militate against 
