ROCK-DOVE. 405 
COLUMBA LIVIA. 
ROCK-DOVE. 
(Puate 17.) 
Columba livia, Briss. Orn. i. p. 82 (1760); Bonnat. Tabl. Encycl. et Méthod. i. p. 227 
(1790); et auctorum plurimorum — Temminck, Naumann, Bonaparte, 
Dresser, Saunders, &c. 
Columba cenas*, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 279 (1766), 
Columba domestica, f. livia, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 769 (1788). 
The Rock-Dove breeds on the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, and all 
the adjacent islands, even including the distant St. Kilda, wherever the 
rocks are precipitous enough to give it protection and provide suitable 
breeding-places for it in their recesses. In a few similar localities inland, 
in Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Somersetshire, and other counties, white-rumped 
Pigeons are found breeding in an apparently wild state; but they are gene- 
rally found mixed with birds with grey rumps, and are probably, in all 
these cases, the descendants of escaped birds. 
The range of the Rock-Dove is much wider than that of any other 
British Dove, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and its exact 
limits are very difficult to determine, in consequence of the impossibility 
of discriminating between wild birds and those whieh have been or are in 
a semi-domesticated state. To the former belong most of the colonies of 
this bird on the coast, whilst those breeding inland in most cases probably 
belong to the latter. It is a common resident on the Faroes. The only 
colony known in Scandinavia is in the Stavanger Fjord, in lat. 59°. In 
France it is only known to occur in the Pyrenees, but is very common on 
the coasts of South Portugal and South Spain and in the mountains of 
the Sierra Nevada. It is found on all the Atlantic islands, including even 
St. Helena. It breeds on all the rocky coasts and islands of the Mediter- 
* Dresser and Saunders both violate the rules.of the British Association in adopting 
the name of Columba enas for the Stock-Dove. This bird may be the C. anas of the 10th 
edition of the ‘Systema Nature’; but it is absolutely certain that the Rock-Dove is the 
C. enas of the 12th edition, the words “ dorso postico albo ” having been inserted in the 
middle of the diagnosis in the later work. If names which are not clearly defined are to 
be rejected, no insertion of the word ‘partim’ or ‘in part’ after them is the slightest 
excuse for their retention; in fact Saunders (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, pp. 649-650) inserts 
precisely the same expression in brackets as a reason for rejecting the name of Sternu 
hirundo of Linnezeus that he adopts (Yarr. Brit. B. iii. p. 8) without brackets as his reason 
for admitting the name of Columba enas of Linneus. It is not easy to see on what 
grounds the presence or absence of brackets should reverse the rule. 
