244 Proceedings of the Boyal Physical Society. 



been developed of late years, or since the numbers increased 

 to overflowing, according to a natural law. " I cannot doubt," 

 says Professor Newton {in lit.), " that the stockdove has been 

 an inhabitant of the heathy part of Norfolk and Suffolk from 

 prehistoric times. Before rabbits were introduced, it pro- 

 bably bred under the thick furze bushes, in the way that it 

 occasionally does now, but the introduction of the rabbit must 

 have been a great benefit to it, as it then had safer lodging 

 for its eggs and young." * 



Amongst our earlier natural history works on the birds of 

 Great Britain, we find that Hewetson, in 1856, records that 

 tliough the stockdove is rarely met with in the North of 

 England, it breeds in some of the southern counties, and it is 

 not uncommon in Epping Forest. We do not for present 

 purposes, I think, require to go further back in its history in 

 these south-eastern counties. 



Coming down to the year 1865, we find Mr A. G. More gives 

 concisely the typical distribution of the species, and records it 

 as most abundant in some of the midland and eastern coun- 

 ties of England ; but, he tells us, " it has not been observed 

 in either Scotland or Ireland." He adds — " While it appears 

 chiefly as a winter visitant in the south-western counties and 

 even in Dorset, it still has been known to breed in Glou- 

 cester, Hereford, and Shropshire, and perhaps in North 

 Wales ;" and at the time Mr More wrote (1865) the nest had 

 been found in east and west Yorkshire, but hardly beyond 

 the 54th degree of north latitude. All Mr More's notes point 

 to the headquarters as still being in the eastern and south- 

 eastern counties. 



Appended is a list of the English counties wherein the 

 stockdove was known to breed up to the year 1864. This is 

 supplemented by the list of other counties where it has been 



* A considerable confusion existed amongst early British naturalists as to 

 the specific values of the stockdove and of the rockdove (C. livia). This is 

 lucidly explained in Ey ton's " Rarer British Birds," 1836, p. 27. We do not, 

 however, think that this confusion appreciably affects the trustworthiness of 

 our earlier records in the south-eastern counties. Many years ago I have had 

 evidence of so-called wood-pigeons breeding under furze bushes on Tents Muir 

 in Fifeshire. As yet I have failed to learn if these were really wood-pigeons 

 or C. anas. 



