334 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



back is rusty grey in first plumage, and the under parts, 

 including the sides of the face and front of the neck, grey to 

 white. The frontal plate is distinctly yellow until after the 

 autumn moult. Length, 15 ins. Wing, 8"5 ins. Tarsus, 2*3 ins. 



Order COLUMBIFORMES. Doves and 



Pigeons. 



Family COLUMBID^. 



Wings ample, bill short, nostrils in soft, fleshy membrane ; 

 feet arboreal, toes four, tarsus short. 



Stock-Dove. Colmnha ccjias Linn. 



In the northern part of its European and western Asiatic 

 range the Stock-Dove (Plate 147) is a migrant, but, except on 

 the east coast, there is little evidence of migration in the British 

 Isles, where the bird is a well-distributed and often plentiful 

 resident, gradually pushing its way north. Early in the 'eighties 

 it was rare in Northumberland, now it breeds in Sutherland, 

 and visits the Orkneys and Shetlands, and is also spreading in 

 Ireland. 



The three pigeons, though superficially alike, have very 

 distinctive characters ; the Ring-Dove may at once be told by 

 the white on its neck and wing, but the Rock and Stock-Doves 

 are more alike in size and plumage. The former, however, has 

 a white rump, and two well-marked black bars on the wing, but 

 the rump of the Stock is grey, and the bars are incomplete. 

 The haunts of the Stock-Dove are in more or less open country, 

 for though it often nests in trees it prefers park lands to thick 

 woods ; where it nests amongst rocks it is often called by the 

 wrong name. It is common on coasts where the cliffs pro- 

 vide holes, and frequents sand-dunes, where it is known as the 



