STOCK-DOVE. 401 
COLUMBA CENAS. 
STOCK-DOVE. 
(Pate 17.) 
Columba cenas, Briss. Orn. i. p. 86 (1760); Gel. Syst. Nat. i. p.769; et auctorum 
plurimorum—Latham, Temminck, Naumann, Bonaparte, Dresser, Saunders, &c. 
Columba vinago, Briss. Orn. i. p. 86 (1760). 
Palumbcena cenas (Briss.), Bonap. Compt. Rend. xxxix. p. 1107 (1854). 
Palumbeena columbella, Bonap. Compt. Rend. xliii. p. 838 (1856). 
The Stock-Dove is generally, though locally, distributed throughout the 
whole of England and Wales. It is a resident bird, and its numbers are 
said to be steadily on the increase. It is only known with certainty to 
have occurred three times in Scotland, on each occasion in the central 
districts, once in Stirlingshire and twice in Perthshire (Dalglish, < Ibis,’ 
1878, p. 882) ; and it has once been observed on migration in the Orkney 
Islands (Gray, ‘ Birds of the West of Scotland,’ p. 220). In Ireland it is 
unknown except in the north-east, where, however, it is said to be very 
rare (Lord Clermont, ‘ Zoologist,’ 1877, p. 383). Its occurrence in the 
Channel Islands appears to be doubtful. 
The Stock-Dove is a resident in the extreme west of the Palearctic 
Region, but to the colder portions of its range it is only a summer visitor. 
In Scandinavia it breeds up to lat. 62°; in West Russia it is very rarely 
found north of St. Petersburg, and in the Ural Mountains it is not known 
to breed north of lat. 57°. The only proof of its occurrence in Siberia is 
the doubtful evidence of an example in the Omsk Museum said to have 
been killed in the neighbourhood. It has not been recorded from any of 
the Atlantic islands, where it is replaced by several nearly allied but quite 
distinct forms, but it is a common resident throughout Central and 
Southern Europe and North-west Africa. Its occurrence in Egypt is 
doubtful, and in Palestine it is said to be very rare; but in Asia Minor 
and the Caucasus it is a common resident. Severtzow says that it breeds 
in West Turkestan ; but its occurrence in Persia is not satisfactorily proved. 
In Central Asia it is represented by C. eversmanni, which may be dis- 
tinguished by its pale rump, vinous crown, black base of the bill, and 
slightly smaller size. This species winters in North India and Scind. 
The Stock-Dove has no other very near ally, and may always be distin- 
guished from the dark-rumped* forms of the Rock-Dove by the well- 
developed black bars across the wing-coverts of the latter. 
* It is a somewhat singular fact that the colour of the rump in this group of birds is 
always correlated with that of the axillaries. 
VOL. II. 2D 
