The Bochdove. 333 
of the wild birds is exactly similar to that of the com- 
monest kind seen in our dove-cots — bluish-grey, with 
black bands across the wings. In its wild state it in- 
habits the cavities of high rocks and cliffs on the sea 
coast, where it is found abundantly in our own country. 
The female Pigeon lays two eggs at a time, which pro- 
duce generally a male and a female. It is pleasing to 
see how eager the male is to sit upon the eggs, in order 
that his mate may rest and feed herself. The young 
ones, when hatched, are fed from the crop of the mother, 
who has the power of forcing up the half-digested peas 
which she has swallowed to give them to her young. 
The young ones, open-mouthed, receive this tribute of 
affection, and are thus fed three times a day. 
There are upwards of twenty varieties of the domestic 
Pigeon, and of these the carriers are the most celebrated. 
They obtain their name from being sometimes employed 
to convey letters or small packets from one place to 
another. The rapidity of their flight is very wonderful. 
Lithgow assures us that one of them will carry a letter 
from Babylon to Aleppo (which, to a man, is usually 
thirty days' journey) in forty-eight hours. To measure 
their speed with some degree of exactness, a gentleman, 
many years ago, on a trifling wager, sent a Carrier 
Pigeon from London, by the coach, to a friend at Bury 
St. Edmunds, and along with it a note, desiring that the 
Pigeon, two days after its arrival there, might be thrown 
up precisely when the town clock struck nine in the 
morning. This was accordingly done, and the Pigeon 
arrived in London at half-past eleven o'clock on the 
same morning, having flown seventy-two miles in two 
hours and a half. An instance of still greater speed is 
mentioned by Mr. Yarrell, in which a Carrier flew from 
Kouen to Ghent, a hundred and fifty miles in a straight 
line, in one hour and a half. From the instant of its 
liberation, its flight is directed through the clouds, at 
a great height, to its home. By an instinct altogether 
inconceivable, it darts onward, in a straight line, to the 
very spot whence it was taken, but how it can direct its 
flight so exactly will probably for ever remain unknown 
to us. 
