RING-DOVE.— STOCK-DOVE. 177 



the syllables " coo-roo-coo-coo/' laying great stress on the 

 second. 



It is fond of gooseberries, but its usual food is beech-mast^ 

 acornSj and corn, as well as turnips, to which it does great 

 harm by scooping out the pulp, leaving large holes, thus 

 admitting the water, and causing the roots to decay. It eats 

 the seeds of many noxious weeds, particularly those of the 

 kelk, or charlock {Sinapis arvensis), and is very fond of those 

 of the buttercup [Ranunculus acris) , as well as of the berries 

 of the holly and the yew. 



In the breeding-season it has a peculiarly buoyant flight, 

 rising and falling in the air in a series of arcs. 



STOCK-DOVE. 



Columha oenas. 



The name Stock-Dove has been supposed to be derived from 

 the mistaken idea that this species is the origin of the 

 domestic pigeon, which however is not the case, but it has 

 been given to this bird from its breeding, not in the branches, 

 but in the stock of a tree, placing its nest, composed of 

 sticks, in holes of large timber, especially of the beech. It 

 breeds in those of St. Leonards Forest, one of which I found 

 tenanted by the Brown Owl in the middle, the Stock-Dove 

 higher up, and the Jackdaw highest of all. I have also 

 known it to build in Spanish chestnut, pollard oak, and fir 

 trees, in the Parks of Petworth, West Grinstead, Parham, 

 and Stanmer, also among the ivy on a tree at Barrow Hill, 

 Henfield. A pair bred for several years in a thick mass of 

 it on my own house at Cowfold, and thence, on the ivy dying 

 away, they removed to that on an oak tree about a hundred 

 yards off. A pair also have long bred just below a window 



