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Show 184 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. CHAP. VI. they were found by Graba at Faroe; and W. Thompson 12 sayi that at Is lay fully half the wild rock-pigeons wore chcquered. Colonel King, of Ilythc, stocked his dovecot with young wild birds which he himsol f procured from nests at the Orkney Islands; and several specimens, ldndly sent to me by him, were all plainly chequcrod. .As we thus seo that chcqucrcd birds occur mingled with tho true rock-pigeon at three distinct sites, namely, Faroe, the Orkney Islands, and Islay, no importance can be attached to this natural variation in tho plumage. Irinco C. L. Bonaparte/3 a great divider of species, enumerates, with a mark of interrogation, as diAtinct from G. livict, tho G. turTicola of Italy, the U. r·ur,estr·is of Daouria, and tho G. Schimperi of Abyssinia ·; but these birds differ from G. l'ivia in characters of tho most trifling value. In the British Museum there is a chcqucrcd pigeon, probably the G. Schimperi of Bonaparte, from .Aoyssinia. 'l'o the e may bo added tho 0 . .r;ymrwcyclas of G. R. Gray from W. Africa, which is slightly more distinct, and has rather more naked skin round tho eyes than tho rock-pigeon; but from information given me by Dr. Daniell, it is doubtful whether tllis is a wild bird, for dovecot-pigeons (which I have examined) aro kept on tho coast of Guinea. Tho wild rock-pigeon of India ( 0. intermedia of Strickland) has been more generally accepted as a distinct species. It chiefly diftors in tho croup being blue instead of snow-white; but as Mr. Blyth informs mo, the tint varies, being sometimes albcscent. When tllis form is domesticated chcquercd birds appear, just as occurs in Europe '1ith the truly wild G. livia. Moreover we shall immediately have proof that the blue and white croup is a highly variable character; and Bcchstcin 14 assorts that with dovccotrpigeons in Germany this is tho most variable of all the characters of the plumage. Hence it may be concluded that G. inter·meclia cannot be ranked as specifically distinct from 0. livin. In Madeira thoro is a rock-pigeon which a few ornithologists have suspected to be distinct from 0. livia. I .have exami:acd numerous specimens collected by J.\1]:. E. V. Harcourt and Mr. Mason. They are rather smaller than tho rock-pigeon from the Shetland Islands, and their beaks arc plainly thinner; but tho thiclmess of the beak varied in the sevoml spcc~men~. ~ pluma~o thoro is remarkable diversity ; some specimens aro Id~ntwal ill every feather (I speak after actual compari ·on) with the rock-p1geon. of the Shetland Islands ; others are chcquered, lilro 0. affinis from the cliffs of England, but generally to a greater degree, being almost black over the whole back; others are identical with the so-called 0. interm~ dia of India in the degree of blueness of the croup; whilst others have this part .ve~·~ pale. or very dark blue, and aro likewise chcquercd. So much vanabil1ty raises a strong suspicion that these birds arc domestic pigeons which have become feral. 12 ' Nat ural History of Ireland,' Birds vol .. ii. (1850), p. 11. For Graba; se~ preVIous reference. 13 'Coup·d'ceil sur l'Ordre des Pi-gcons,' Comptes Rendus, 1854.55. • 14 'Naturgcsch. Deutscblands,' Band 1V.1 1795, S, 14. CIIAP. VI. THEIR PARENTAGE. 185 From these facts it can hardly be doubted that 0. livia, affinis, intermedia and tho forms marked with an interrogation by Bonaparte, ought all to' be included lmdcr a single species. But it is quito immaterial whether or not they are thus ranked, and whether some one of these forms or all are tho progenitors of tho various domestic kinds, as far as any light is thus thrown on the differences between the more. stron~lymarkcd races. That common dovecot-pigeons, which are kept ill various parts of tho world, arc descended from one or from several of the abov~mentioned wild varieties of G. livia, no one who compares them will doubt. But before maldng a few remarks on dovecot-pigeons, it should bo stated that tho wild rock-pigeon has been found easy to tame iii several countries. We have seen that Colonel King at Hytho stocked his dovecot more than twenty years ago with young wild birds taken at the Orlmcy Islands, and since this time they have greatly multiplied. The accurate Macgillivray 16 asserts that he completely tamed a wild rock-pigeon in the Hebrides; and several accounts arc on record of these pigeons having bred in dovecots in the Shetland Islands. In India, as Captain Hutton informs me, the wild rock-pigeon is easily tamed, and breeds readily with the domestic kind; and Mr. Blyth 16 asserts that wild birds come frequently to the dovecots and mingle freely with their inhabitants. In the ancient '.Ayeen Akbery' it is written that, if a few wild pigeons be· taken, "they are speedily joined by a thousand others of their ldnd." ·Dovecot-pigeons arc those which are kept in dovecots in a semidomesticated state; for no speeial care is taken of them, and they procure their own food, except during the severest weather. In England, and, judging from MM. Boitard and Corbie's work, in France, the common dovecot-pigeon exactly resembles the chequered variety of 0. livia; but I have seen dovecots brought fr·om Yorkshire, without any trace of chequering, like tho wild rock-pigeon of the Shetland Islands. The chequercd dovecots from the Orkney I slands, after having been domesticated by Colonel King for more than twenty years, differed slightly from each other in the darkness of their plumage, and in the thickness of their beaks ; the thinnest beak being rather thicker than the thickest one in the Madeira birds. In Germany, according to Bcchstein, the common dovecot-pigeon is not chequcred. In India they often become chequered, and sometimes pied with white; the croup also, as I am informed by Mr. Blyth, becomes nearly white. I have received from Sll.· J. Brooke some dovecot-pigeons, 1s 'History of :British Birds,' vol. i. pp. 275-284. Mr. Andrew Duncan tamed a rock-pigeon in the Shetland Islands. Mr. James Barclay, and Ml·. Smith of Uyea Sound, both say that tho wild rock-pigeon can be easily tamed; and the former gentleman asserts that the tamed birds breed four times a year. Dr. Lawrence Edmondstone informs me that a wild rock-pigeon came and settled in his dovecot in Balta Sound in the Shetland Islands, and bred with his pigeons; he hns also given me other instances of the wild rock-pigeon having been taken young and breeding in captivity. 16 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. History,' vol. xix., 1847, p. 103, and vol. for 1857, p. 512. |