STOCK-DOVE. 335 



" Sand-Pigeon." Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, 

 with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of 

 pigeons in general. Indeed, there is so much of the domestic 

 pigeon in its bobbing gait, appearance, and habits that there is 

 excuse for the erroneous idea that it is the "stock" from which 

 our tame birds are derived. It perches well, and in nuptial 

 display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, 

 lowered wings, and fanned tail, just as tame birds swagger on the 

 roof-tree. I have seen a male bowing to the female, with his 

 bill almost touching the ground and his spread tail elevated 

 vertically. During the circling spring flight the wings are 

 smartly cracked like a whip-lash. 



The Stock-Dove is sociable as well as gregarious, often 

 consorting with Ring-Doves, though doubtless it is the presence 

 of food which brings them together. Something to its liking 

 takes it to the shore, where it may be seen pecking at the sand 

 on tidal banks, a common habit also of domestic pigeons. Its 

 comparative scarcity, when compared with the vast hordes of 

 migratory Ring-Doves, explains why it has not been accused of 

 grain eating ; it is defended by many as a destroyer of weeds. 

 Weeds it certainly eats, especially the seeds of charlock, but 

 it enjoys grain ; Mr. J. A. Dockray found the crops of many 

 birds filled with wheat and oats as well as charlock, at the 

 same time that those of Wood-Pigeons were crammed with 

 nothing but acorns. Most of its food is vegetable ; young shoots 

 and seedlings are favoured. The short, deep, grunting call 

 is quite distinct from the modulated cooing notes of the Ring- 

 Dove ; it is loud enough to be described, somewhat fancifully, 

 as " roaring." 



The nest, though it is seldom that any nesting material is 

 used, is usually in a hole in a tree, a crack in a rock face, as in 

 the limestone of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Wales, or in a 

 rabbit-burrow, but the bird also nests in ivy, or in the thick 

 growih round the boles of limes, as well as in deserted nests of 



