88 
B I R 
✓ 
The female is about half the fize of the male : 
the crown of the head is of a deep orange travel¬ 
ed with black lines ; the reft of the head is 
brown. The lower part of the forefide of the 
neck is afli colored : in other refpeels it refembles 
the male, only the colors of the back and wings 
are far more dull. 
Thefe birds inhabit moft of the open countries 
of the South and Eaft parts of this ifland, from 
Dorfetftoire , as far as Merch and Lothian m 
Scotland *. They are exceeding fhy, and diffi¬ 
cult to be ffiot; run very faft, and when on the 
wing can fly, tho’ (lowly, many miles without 
refting. It is faid that they take flight with diffi¬ 
culty, and are fometimes run down with gre- 
hounds. They keep near their old haunts, fel- 
dom wandering above twenty or thirty miles. 
Their food is corn and other vegetables, and 
thofe large earth-worms that appear in great 
quantities on the Downs , before fun-riflng in the 
fummer. Thefe are replete with moifture, an- 
fwer the purpofe of liquids, and enable them to 
* Sib. Scot. 16. 
D S. [Glals II. 
live long without drinking on thole extenfive and 
dry Tra&s. Befides this, nature hath given the 
males an admirable magazine for their fecurity 
again ft drought, being a pouch f, whofe en¬ 
trance lies immediately under the tongue, and 
which is capable of holding near feven quarts ; 
and this they probably fill with water, to fup- 
ply the hen when fitting, or the young before 
they can fly. Bullards lay only two eggs, of 
the fize of thofe of a goole, of a pale olive 
brown, marked with fpots of a darker color ; 
they make no neft, only fcrape a hole in the 
ground. In autumn they are (in Wilt {hire) ge¬ 
nerally found in large turnep fields near the 
Downs, and in flocks of fifty or more. 
To this bird we may add the little Bullard of 
Mr . Edwards ) tab. 251. The Canne petiere of 
the French , Wil. orn . 179. one of which was ffiot 
in Cornwai 1751. this being the only one that 
we have heard of in this kingdom, and probably 
a ftrayed bird, it mull be denied a place in this 
work. 
q. The world is obliged to the late Dr. Douglas for this difcovery; 
and to Mr. Edwards for communicating it. 
GENUS XV. PIGEONS. 
SPECIES I. The Common Pigeon 
Common wild Dove ? or Pigeon. 
JVil. orn . 180. and the (lock Dove^ 
or Wood Pigeon. 185. 
Rail fyn , av. 59, 62. 
INNJEUS very judicioufly ob- 
ferves, that the tame pigeon with all its 
varieties arifes from only one fpecies ; 
the Stock Dove. Its characters in the Hate 
neareft that of its origin, is a deep bluiffi alh co¬ 
lor ; the bread is dallied with a fine changeable 
green and purple } its wings marked with two 
black bars, one on the coverts of the wings the 
Columba domeftica. Brijfon av. I. 
68. Columba Livia. 82. 1 
Columba Oenas. Lin. fyft. 162. 
Columba vulgaris. Gefner av. 279. 
other on the quil-feathers. The back is white, 
and the tail barred near the end with black. In 
the wild Hate it breeds in holes of rocks, and 
hollows of trees, for which reafon fome writers 
ftile it columba cavernalis * in oppofition to the 
Ring Dove, which makes its neft on the boughs 
of trees. Nature ever preferves fome agreement 
in 
* The Columba faxatilis, or rock pigeon, that is frequent on moft of 
our cliffs, is only a variety of the wild pigeon. 
