C0LUMBID.4i:. 



THE STOCK-DOVE. 



COLUMBA (iNAS, LinnGsus. 



The Stock-Dove has often been confounded with the white- 

 rumped Rock-Dove, and the name has even been erroneously sup- 

 posed to signify that this species was the origin of our domestic 

 breeds, though the prefix really refers to the bird's habit of nesting 

 in the " stocks " of trees : whence also the Danish " Huldue " and 

 the German " Hohltaube," both meaning Hole-Dove. In England 

 the Stock-Dove has greatly increased in numbers of late years, and, 

 though somewhat local, is tolerably frequent in most districts where 

 old timber exists, especially in the remains of our ancient forests, and 

 also in our parks, even when close to London. It inhabits wooded 

 crags in the Isle of Wight as well as similar localities in Wales, the 

 cliffs of Dorset, some parts of Devon, Derbyshire, and even those near 

 Flamborough Head in Yorkshire. In treeless areas, such as are met 

 with in Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, 

 Lancashire, Cumberland &c., it deposits its eggs in rabbit-burrows, 

 or under the shelter of dense furze ; while in many places it is 

 persistently misnamed ' Rock-Dove ' or even ' Blue Rock ' by the 

 inhabitants. In Scotland, as long ago as 1885 it had extended its 

 range as a breeding-species to the sand-hills along the Moray and 



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