STOCK-DOVE 25 



vegetable matter, and inflict very extensive damage on crops of 

 almost every description. 



The habits of the wood-pigeon, as well as its soft " cooing," are 

 so familiar to all who live in the country (to say nothing of Londoners, 

 who may watch these birds in the public parks and gardens, where 

 they become extraordinarily tame and confiding), that a very short 

 notice will suffice. Although associating in winter in large flocks, 

 when they are excessively wary and difficult to approach, these birds 

 pair off in the breeding-season, when they keep entirely to themselves. 

 The nesting-site may vary from the first fork in the trunk of some 

 lofty beech, to a low hedge, or even a furze-bush ; and the first pair 

 of eggs is laid in June, to be followed later in the season by at least 

 another clutch. The cock-bird takes his share at incubation — mainly 

 in the daytime — which lasts from sixteen to eighteen days. So loosely 

 is the nest constructed that, when placed in a bush, the glistening 

 white eggs may be seen from below. Wood-pigeons feed as a rule 

 upon vegetable substances, inclusive, at the proper seasons, of grain 

 and turnip-tops, with which latter their crops may at times be found 

 absolutely crammed. From the crop of one of these birds no less than 

 one thousand grains of corn have been taken, from a second eight 

 hundred grains of barley, and from a third one hundred and fifty beans 

 and peas. Much more rarely wood-pigeons have been known to feed 

 on snails, a specimen having been killed in winter in 1905 with its 

 crop full of land-snails, while many years previously one was found 

 with thirteen shells of the same kind of snail, and a third was shot 

 in Kildare which had swallowed nearly forty marsh amber-snails. 

 A white wood-pigeon from Scotland was presented to the British 

 Museum in 1906. 



Stoek-Dove ^^^ second British representative of the group is 

 (Columba csnas). ^^^^ stock-dove, which forms the type of the genus 

 Columba. It has very much the same geographical 

 distribution as the wood-pigeon, although its northward breeding-range 

 is somewhat less, extending in Scandinavia and Russia only to about 

 latitude 60^ or 61 . On the other hand, its easterly range is con- 

 siderably more extensive, reaching as far as Turkestan, Afghanistan, 

 and Lob Nor in Central Asia. In England it is found in most places, 

 and, like the wood-pigeon, has for some years past been steadily ex- 

 tending its range in Scotland, although it does not apparently reach 

 Argyllshire or the isles. In Ireland it seems to be a recent introduc- 

 tion, the first record of its occurrence there being apparently in 1875, 



