THE ROOK-DOVE. 
445 
the birds can change their places freely ; but in the case of the wooden cotes, the space is very 
limited, and the ventilation almost reduced to a nullity. Vermin, too, swarm in such places, 
and the birds show their good sense in getting away from so unhealthy a situation. The cotes 
should always be well cleaned at intervals, and the owner will be repaid by the health and 
rapidly increasing number of his birds. 
In a domesticated state, although it is better to feed them at home and so keep them from 
straying, they will always forage for themselves and young without any assistance, a flight of 
ten miles or so being a mere nothing to these strong-winged birds. Indeed, the Pigeons that 
inhabit the Hague are known to cross the sea as far as the coast of Norfolk for the sake of 
feeding on the vetches. 
The color of the Rock-Dove is as follows : The head is gray, and the neck of the same 
color, but “shot” with purple and green. The chin is blue-gray, and the throat changeable 
green and purple. The upper surface of the body is also gray, but of a different tone ; the 
greater coverts are barred with black at their tip, forming a decided band across the wing ; 
the tertials are also tipped with black, and another black band crosses the wing a little below 
the first-mentioned bar. These conspicuous black bars are difficult to eradicate from the 
domestic breeds, and are always apt to make their appearance most unexpectedly, and annoy 
the fancier greatly. The lower part of the back is pure white, the upper tail-coverts are pearl- 
gray, and the breast and abdomen of the same hue. The total length of this bird is not quite 
a foot. 
Prom this stock, the varieties that have been reared by careful management are almost 
innumerable, and are so different in appearance that if they were seen for the first time, 
almost any systematic naturalist would set them down as belonging not only to different 
species, but to different genera. Such, for example, as the pouter, the jacobin, the trumpeter, 
and the fantail, the last-mentioned bird having a greater number of feathers in its tail than any 
of the others. 
As this work is not intended to be of a sporting or “fancy” character, a description of 
the various fancy Pigeons cannot be given. But the “homing” faculty of this bird, and the 
use to which it has been put, is too important to be passed over without a notice. 
It has long been known that Pigeons have a wonderful power of finding their home, even 
if taken to great distances, and the mode by which the birds are enabled to reach their 
domiciles has long been the object of discussion, one party arguing that it is an instinctive 
operation, and the other, that it is entirely by sight. In my opinion the latter party have 
the better of the argument, though perhaps the element of instinct ought not wholly to 
be omitted. I have been told by those who have hunted on vast plains, where no object 
serves as a guide, that the only way to get safely back is to set off on the homeward track 
without thinking about it, for that when a man begins to exercise his reason, his instinct 
fails him in proportion, and unless he should be furnished with a compass, he will probably 
be lost. 
Still, that the sense of sight is the principal element cannot, I think, be denied. For in 
training a bird, the instructors always take it by degrees to various distances, beginning with 
half a mile or so, and ending with sixty or seventy miles in the case of really good birds, 
which will travel from ^London to Manchester in four hours and a half. In foggy weather the 
birds are often lost, even though they have to pass over short distances, and when a heavy 
fall of snow has obliterated their landmarks and given the country an uniform white coating, 
they aie sadly troubled in finding their way home. The fancy Carrier Pigeon, with the large 
wattles on the beak, is said to be no very good messenger, the trainers preferring the Belgian 
bird, with its short beak, round head, and broad shoulders. 
It is a curious, but a well ascertained fact, that the accuracy of Pigeon flight depends 
much on the points of the compass, although each individual bird may have a different 
idiosyncracy in this respect. Some birds, for example, always fly best in a line nearly north 
and south, while others prefer east and west as their line of flight. This remarkable pro- 
pensity seems to indicate that the birds are much influenced by the electric or magnetic currents 
continually traversing the earth. When starting from a distance to reach their home, these 
