348 ' THE BIRDS OF KENT 



STOCK-DOVE. 



CoUmiba cBuas, Linnaeus {partim). S.N., i., p. 279 



(1766). 



Although this bird is to be met with occasionally in 

 pairs in most of the large woods throughout the county, 

 it is far from being a common species. It still breeds 

 in suitable places in the larger and more secluded woods 

 and plantations. 



Mr. W. H. Power, in his Birds Observed at Bainham, 

 says : " Early in July of this year (1865) I constantly 

 saw small flocks of these pigeons on the marshes, but, 

 owing to their exceeding wariness, could never get 

 within range ; at length one day I stalked some and 

 killed three, one of them a young bird about two-thirds 

 grown. This is, I think, presumptive that the Stock- 

 Dove breeds in the Kentish woods, where, although 

 they were formerly to be constantly found in the 

 autumn, they have, within the last twenty years, 

 become decidedly uncommon." Lord Chfton, in 1866, 

 stated that the Stock-Dove was "very common in the 

 woods at Cobham, and builds both in trees and rabbit- 

 holes." 



Mr. T. Hepburn records, in his notes on the birds 

 at Dungeness, that " always a few of these birds are 

 about the beach feeding on the green places. May 14, 

 1900: I noticed one of these birds fly up from a 

 rabbit's burrow. Upon investigating I found its rough 

 nest and two young birds down the burrow." 



Mr. B. T. Filmer says it is "rare in the Orlestone 

 district. A nest was built and young ones raised for 

 several years in an old, tumble-down lodge in Bourne 

 AVood, Kent." 



