COLUMBA -ENAS. 535 



Hath got the voice in hell for excellence ; 



And other devils that suggest by treasons, 



Do botch, and bungle up damnation 



With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd 



From glistering semblances of piety." 



Its general colour is lead-blue, wings and scapulars tinged with 

 purple ; hind part and sides of the neck glossy green and 

 purplish-red, with two white rings round its neck — hence its 

 name ; fore part of neck and breast, light purplish red ; a white 

 patch on the wings ; tail, greyish blue ; iris, pale yellow ; tarsi 

 and toes, red. Female similar. Length 17-J- by 30 inches in 

 extent of wings. 



The Stock Dove or Wood Dove. 

 Columba ^Enas. (Linn.) 



" The birds are singing in the woods ; 

 Over his own sivcet voice the stock dove broods. 

 The jay makes answer as the magpie chatters ; 

 And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters." — Wordsworth. 



This bird is erroneously called the stock dove, from which our 

 domestic pigeons have sprung, as it is now admitted they sprang 

 from the rock dove. Its right to be called the wood dove is 

 also questioned. Mr Salmon in his "Migratory Birds in the 

 Neighbourhood of Thetford, Norfolk," says — " The stock dove 

 which in all works upon natural history is stated to be only an 

 inhabitant of woods, abounds here during spring and summer 

 upon our rabbit warrens and heaths, to which it resorts for 

 nidification. The situation for its nest differs from that chosen 

 by its congeners — the ring and turtle doves (C. Palumbus and 

 C. Turtur), which are always upon trees or bushes. This 

 species, on the contrary, occupies the deserted rabbit burrows 

 upon warrens. It places its pair of eggs about a yard from the 

 entrance, generally on the bare sand, sometimes using a small 

 quantity of dried roots, and barely sufficient to keep the eggs 

 from the ground. It also lays its eggs under those thick furze 

 bushes that are impervious to rain" — both strange places for 

 such a strong-pinioned bird. I have also got its nest in rabbit 

 burrows on Tentsmuir. The eggs are white, tinted with cream 

 colour. It is indigenous, but limited to certain districts in 

 Britain ; common in Hertfordshire and some of the midland 



