PIGEONS. 
91 
zing sound as they fall. Impelled by this united 
attack, the Pigeons rush forward to the head of the 
gorge, and there meet their fate in the nets, which 
stop their progress. By this means sometimes as 
many as two hundred are caught at once. 
The American wild Pigeons, as well as our com- 
mon Wood-Pigeons ( Columba oenas , and palumb a), 
the Stock Dove and Ping Dove, usually build in 
trees ; hut not always, for in many situations, they 
prefer holes in rocks and precipices, and even, in 
some cases, old rabbit-burrows ; when found in these, 
the warreners fix sticks at the mouth of the hole, in 
such a manner as to prevent the escape of the 
young birds, hut wide enough apart to allow the old 
ones to feed them. In the eastern countries and the 
Holy Land, the wild Pigeons almost invariably^prefer 
such situations to trees, thus confirming the words 
of the prophet, who speaks of the Dove that maketh 
her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth. — Jeremiah 
xlviii. 28 . 
It is remarkable that, although our common Wood- 
Pigeon is supposed to be the origin of all our com- 
mon House-Pigeons, every attempt at taming the 
young of these birds has failed ; no sooner are they 
released from confinement, notwithstanding every 
attention and care, than they fly off at once to their 
native woods, and return no more; hut the: Indians 
of North America seem to have found out some 
method of changing their nature, as a traveller found 
wild Pigeons amongst a tribe of Indians, which were 
so tame, as to fly and return again. 
That birds of this species can form odd attach- 
ments, we may learn from the following strange as- 
