134 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



will find colonies of these pigeons at the Royal 

 Exchange, at the terminus of the South-Eastern 

 Railway at London Bridge, and at the British 

 Museum. 



Stock Dove, Columha conas. Mr. Blyth says that 

 this bird is rare in the South of England ; but Mr. 

 Yarrell, I think more correctly, observes that Co- 

 lumbus cenas is, in truth, a southern species. It 

 was called Stock Dove, not because it was supposed 

 by some to be the original stock of our domestic 

 pigeons, but from its habit of nesting in stocks or 

 pollards.* 



The specific name of cenas is derived from " oivog,^' 

 and was given to it on account of the vinous claret 

 colour of the neck-feathers. 



I have occasionally observed small flocks in this 

 county in the autumn and winter, but have seldom 

 seen more than ten or a dozen individuals in each. 

 This bird was formerly not uncommon in the 

 Hampstead woods, and breeds so near London as 



* 111 all works on Ornithology to which I have referred, 

 the Stock Dove is said to breed only in such situations as 

 these, and in deserted rabbit-burrows ; but in the summer of 

 1865 I discovered several pairs of this species nesting in 

 cliffs facing the sea, after the fashion of the Rock Dove. 

 Some notes on this new habitat will be found in the ' Zoo- 

 logist ' for 1865, p. 9670, and in ' The Field' of April 14, 

 1866. 



