ROCK-DOVE. 175 



beech trees. In open districts, however, they will sometimes build 

 in deserted rabbit-burrows, about a yard from the entrance, or on 

 the ground beneath thick furze-bushes, entering by a rabbit-run 

 beneath them. 



The Stock-Dove is not driven to these last resources in 

 Herefordshire, where hollow stocks in the trees are vastly more 

 numerous than these Doves to build in them. It is not a common 

 bird in this county, but is found occasionally in secluded districts, 

 frequenting the same tree year after year. Their morning and 

 evening note is a prolonged "coo-00-00." The Stock-Dove 

 resembles the Wood-Pigeon in its habits, and in the food it takes, 

 and is occasionally brought to the poulterer's for sale with it. 



COLUMBA LIVIA— Rock-Dove. 



my Dove, that art in the clefts of the rock. 



—Cant. II., 14. 



And yet more splendid, numerous flocks 

 Of Pigeons, settling on the rocks. 

 With their rich restless wings, that gleam 

 Variously in the crimson beam 

 Of the warm west. 



Moore— Lalla Rookh. 



The Rock-Dove is supposed to be the origin of all the many 

 domestic varieties of the Pigeon. It agrees with them in habits, 

 attitudes, mode of flight, manner of feeding, and especially in the 

 characteristic habit of perching or nesting in rocks, or in masonry, 

 to the avoidance of trees. 



His Pigeons, who in session on their roofs 

 Approved him, bowing at their own deserts. 



Tennyson— TAe Brook. 



All Other species of Wild Pigeons in the old world, on the contrary, 

 frequent trees by preference. The white feathers on the croup, or 

 rump, of the Rock-Dove with its black-barred wings, constitute its 

 distinctive coloration ; and these feathers are often to be seen 

 among the flocks from the dovecot, showing a return to their origin. 



