THK KOCK-DOVE. 389 



But high she shoots thi-ougli air and light, 



Above all low delay ; 

 Where nothing oarthlj" bounds her flight, 



Kor shadow dims lier way. 



So grant me, Lord ! iVom every stain 



Of sinful iiassiuu ii-ee, 

 Aloft, through virtue's purer air. 



To steer my eoiu'se to Thee ! 



No sin to cloud, no lure to stay 



My soul, as home she springs ; 

 Thy sunshine on her joyful way. 



Thy freedom on her wings," 



THK STOCK-DOVE.* 



The Stock-dove was so called from the erroneotis idea of its being the stock to which 

 the common pigeon may be referred. White, in his " History of Selborne," well 

 distinguishes the stock-dove and the small blue rock-pigeon. He observes, that " unless 

 the stock-dove in winter greatly varies from itself in summer, no species seems more 

 unlikely to be domesticated, and to make a house-dove. We very rarely see the latter 

 settle on trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the woods ; but the former, as long as it 

 stays with us, from November perhaps to February, lives the same wild life with the 

 ring-dove ; frequents coppices and groves, supports itself chiefly by mast, and delights to 

 roost in the tallest beeches. Could it be known in what manner the stock-doves build, 

 the doubt would be settled with me at once, provided they construct their nests on trees, 

 like the ring-dove, as I much suspect they do." 



Our information is now more extended than that of this interesting naturalist. We 

 know that the stock-dove limits its range almost exclusively to the midland counties, and 

 is common in Hertfordshire. It is rarely seen in the southern or western counties, and 

 more rarely still in the northern. In winter the flocks are increased by accessions from 

 the northern provinces of Europe, but these visitants depart in the spring. The stock- 

 dove makes an artificial nest of twigs in the holes of decayed and time-worn trees, and in 

 cavities on the top of pollards, but never places it on the forked or spreading branches of 

 a tree. This bird is found, not only in Europe, but in various parts of Asia, and in the 

 northern provinces of Africa. 



THE ROCK-DOVE. t 



• 



The Eock-dove, as its name indicates, frequents rocks and precipices, especially alono- 

 the sea-coast, and is by no means common. It is partial to deep caverns, in which it 

 breeds. It liauuts the caves in the clifl" at St. Abb's Head, on the Berwickshire coast ; 

 those in. the Isle of Bass ; of Caldy Island, South Wales ; and of the wild precipices of 

 the Orkneys. It has often been seen on the steeples of churches near the coast, and 

 numbers have been discovered inhabiting the holes and crevices in the higher parts of 

 Canterbury cathedral. Selby states that it is numerous in the rocky islands of the 

 Mediterranean, where it lives and breeds in caverns on the shore ; and it is equally 

 abundant on the north coast of Africa, especially in the Island of Teneriffe. 



Speaking of the rock-dove, Selby says : " Although this species seems to have fallen 

 frequently under the notice of our ornithologists (as may be gathered from their descrip- 

 tions and the loealities they have given to it), yet it has always been attended by the 



* C'olumba ./Enas. t Columba Livia. 



