298 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
instance is recorded in the ‘ Zoologist’ of a nest 
having been found as late as the 23rd of October. 
The Wood Pigeon (as well as the rest of the 
Pigeon family) has great power and velocity of flight, 
and being a heavy bird, in comparison with some 
others of nearly the same size, bears out to a certain 
extent the Duke of Argyle’s theory of weight before 
alluded to.* The breast-bone also is very strong 
and solid and the keel very deep, measuring one 
inch and one line in depth, while that of the Rook 
measures only eight lines, that of the Partridge ten 
lines, and that of the Common Buzzard (a larger 
bird) measures only eight lines in depth. 
The Wood Pigeon cannot be kept, like the 
common tame Pigeons, in a semi-domestic state, 
though it can be kept in a state of confinement, and 
it is then said to grow very tame; but it has not 
been known to breed in this state or to cross with 
any other Pigeon. In plumage the “ Ring Dove,” 
as this bird is frequently called, from the white patch 
on each side of the neck (which gives a sort of 
appearance of a ring), is a handsome, showy bird. 
The beak is reddish orange, the soft part about the 
nostrils almost white; the irides straw-yellow; the 
head and back of the neck greyish blue: the back, 
scapulars, wing-coverts (except a few of the outer 
* According to Montagu the Wood Pigeon weighs 
twenty ounces, the Partridge only fifteen ounces. 
