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 kind."

Dovecot-pigeons are those which are kept in dovecots in a
semi-domesticated state; for no special 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 _C. livia_;
but I have seen dovecots brought from Yorkshire, without any trace of
chequering, like the wild rock-pigeon of the Shetland Islands. The
chequered dovecots from the Orkney Islands, 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
Bechstein, the common dovecot-pigeon is not chequered. 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 Sir J. Brooke some dovecot-pigeons, {186} which originally came
from the S. Natunas Islands in the Malay archipelago, and which had
been crossed with the Singapore dovecots; they were small, and the
darkest variety was extremely like the dark chequered variety with a
blue croup from Madeira; but the beak was not so thin, though decidedly
thinner than in the rock-pigeon from the Shetland Islands. A
dovecot-pigeon sent to me by Mr. Swinhoe from Foochow, in China, was
likewise rather small, but differed in no other respect. I have also
received, through the kindness of Dr. Daniell, four living
dovecot-pigeons from Sierra Leone;[332] these were fully as large as
the Shetland rock-pigeon, with even bulkier bodies. In plumage some of
them were identical with the Shetland rock-pigeon, but with the
metallic tints apparently rather more brilliant; others had a blue
croup and resembled the chequered variety of _C. intermedia_ of India;
and some were so much chequered as to be nearly black. In these four
birds the beak differed slightly in length, but in all it was decidedly
shorter, more massive, and stronger than in the wil