T HE two classes of birds which, with the exception of
the artificially bred pheasant, have increased more than any others in this country are the various wild pigeons and the wild ducks. The wild ducks receive special protection, both by a close time and in some places by the " scheduling " of their eggs. But the largest of the pigeons, the common ring-dove, is not protected even in the nesting time ; while another, the turtle-dove, is migratory, and comes to us by way of Spain from Africa. Yet the increase in the numbers of the turtle-dove, the exquisite pearl-like spots in the end of the tail-feathers of which make it resemble some beautiful moth when rising from the ground in the pine woods which it delights to haunt for the first few days after its arrival, has been matter for remark in nearly every county. The
• great increase in the home-breeding wood-pigeons began • shortly after the general reafforestation of Scotland. As early as 1860 Charles St. John remarked that the birds were becoming a serious nuisance to the farmers even in Morayshire.
At the present time it is commoner all the year round in the far North of England than anywhere else, but especially in Northumberland, where wood-pigeons are regarded almost as a pest, and every one is welcome to shoot them when and where he can. But it was not until very recent years that these birds began to approach the numbers in which they are now found in the South, and the cause was undoubtedly the preservation of the pheasant. As wood after wood, estate after estate, county after county, came under the influence of the game preserver, each wood, coppice, and tall hedge became a complete sanctuary for the nesting of the wood- pigeon. For ages the young of these birds bad been a special dainty with the country labourer, whose ploughboy son always kept a careful eye on them till the fat downy "squabs" were full grown, but not quite able to fly, and then committed them hopefully to pie-crust for Sunday's dinner. But with the exclusion of the bird's-nesting boy the pigeon has had fair play as a parent, a role in which it excels. All young pigeons and doves have this great advantage over most other nestlings, that their parents feed them, not with natural food, but with a carefully pre- pared pepsine, which they pump into the young pigeon's throat. As the old birds can fly practically any distance to procure food themselves, and then only need to give the young ones a share of it, the latter enjoy a "constant supply" of unvarying quality, and it is quite the exception for the old birds to fail in rearing both of their pair of young, for two eggs at a time is the measure of the pigeon's fertility. On the other hand, there is no known limit to the number of broods they will undertake to bring up. Often -the first pair of eggs are laid at the end of February, generally in the ivy growing on some old tree ; and it is not uncommon to find birds sitting on another pair of eggs in September. During the whole summer, also, flocks of apparently unpaired birds are seen flying about, and many of them are certainly old pigeons, and not the birds of the
The " commensalism" with man which they have adopted
in such a pleasing manner in London does not as yet extend to any part of the rural districts, as in the winter and autumn their excellent edible qualities make them the object of every class of gunner. But around country houses they are now so generally protected that there are a few very tame pairs in every large garden. The dainty which they most appreeiate is salt, and if this is thrown down near to the pans set out for the use of other garden birds, the wood-pigeons will, as a rule, come to feed quite as readily as the rest. Unlike domestic pigeons, the wood-pigeons are naturally extremely morose and disagreeable birds. A common domestic pigeon, if a cock bird, will become extra- ordinarily tame and affectionate. The writer has known one which always flew to its mistress's room to sleep, and spent with her for several years nearly all the time, or more than all the time, which it ought to have devoted to its wife and family. It would also try to feed her when feeling more than usual devotion. But a tame wood-pigeon kept at the same time would never permit itself to be touched, preferred to be quite alone, and disliked the company of all other birds or animals about the house equally with that of mankind. The same quarrelsome disposition may often be seen among London wood-pigeons. At a house in Onslow Square where they are regularly fed on the roof of a loggia and on a balcony, they frequently fight and make such a noise by buffeting each other with their wings over the "free breakfasts" provided that the disturbance is qhite audible in the dwelling-rooms.
The two other wild English species are the stock-dove, which resembles a small wood-pigeon, but is a very much married bird, the pairs being seen together in almost as constant proximity as are pairs of partridges; and the "blue rock" or rock-pigeon, one of the probable ancestors of our domestic birds. The stock-dove, unlike the wood-pigeon, nests almost invariably either in hollow trees, or in holes of some kind, even in rabbit-holes. It is rarely, if ever, found in Scotland, and is unknown in Ireland, but elsewhere it is as common as it is beautiful. It is especially fond of parks, where it breeds in the old trees, and also of ruinous buildings. In Oxford it almost takes the place of the wood-pigeon in London. There is hardly a College chapel or tower where there are not a few pairs breeding, and of late it has become so tame that it nests in holes in the fine old garden walls, or quite low down in other buildings. Stock-doves have a habit of cooing when sitting inside the holes in which they nest, and the sound travels through the masonry in a curious and perplexing manner. The present writer used to be much disturbed when an undergraduate by a stock-dove of surprisingly early and musical habits, which lived in a hole in a thick College wall, on the other side of which was his bed. The effect was as though the bird were cooing inside the pillow. On the Norfolk heaths the birds lay in the rabbit- holes regularly, and bring up their broods side by side with the rabbits, much as the burrowing owls do in the burrows of viscachas, or prairie-dogs.
But the most interesting, if the least common, of our wild pigeons is the rock-dove. It lives all the year on the coast, roosting in the caves, where the nest colonies are found in spring. In the furthest caves of Iona, in the Firth of Cromarty, in the caverns of St. Kilda, whence the birds are said to fly seventy miles daily to find their food, in the cliffs and caves of Wales and Cornwall, in the Pyrenees, in the caverns of the Sierra Nevada, on the islands of the Atlantic, even St. Helena, in the Atlas Mountains, on Mount Par- nassus, in the cliffs of Sinai, and across the Mid- A.sian ranges through North China to Japan, this genial bird is found. It was probably the "dove" of Noah. It is the common " domestic " pigeon of India, and it has been exported thence, as a tame bird, to various other countries of the East. The Indian species is very slightly different from our rock-dove; but, according to Mr. Seebohm, it is found wild in Gilgit, and it is probably only the trans-Himalayan form. Sandy-coloured specimens, the "foundation stock" of the various sandy, chestnut, and bronze forms of domestic pigeons, are often found in the caves of Cromarty among the normally coloured blue birds. The beautiful ease in the Natural History Museum illus- trating the varieties of the pigeon under domestication is perhaps the beat comment on its wonderful " plasticity " under the care of man.
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