ROCK DOVE. 
67 
selected. Nevertheless, as the name indicates, 
rocks and caves are the natural resting 1 places, 
and a curious assemblage of birds, very different 
in their natures, may sometimes be observed in 
and about the entrance of these sea worn caverns. 
An eagle, or pair of peregrine falcons, may claim 
the centre of the precipice ; a little lower, gulls 
and guillemots may nestle; cormorants may occupy 
the mouth of the cave, aud jackdaws and starlings 
may chatter in its outward rents and crevices ; 
the murmur of the Rock Dove, from its shelves, 
fills the interior, when it can be distinguished 
from the noise of the surge at its entrance. 
As the last species particularly frequented the 
southern parts of our island, so do we find the 
Rock Dove frequent, and most numerous, towards 
the north. We have indeed few English localities 
mentioned. Mr. Selby states, that they are found 
in the cliffs of Caldy Island in South Wales ; and 
we are informed by a letter from Mr. Yarrell, on 
the authority of Dr. Moore and Mr. Couch, that 
they breed on some parts of the Devonshire and 
Cornish coasts. In Scotland the localities are nu- 
merous ; on the southern shores, St. Abb’s Head, 
the Bass Rock, and Isle of May, produce them ; 
but as the domestic varieties are occasionally seen 
in their company, it may be questioned, as Pro- 
fessor Macgillivray * remarks, whether they are 
now quite pure in these stations. Scarcely any 
* See an interesting account of this species, MacgiUivray's 
British Birds, i. p. 268. 
