Mr J. A. Harvic-Brown on the Stockdove. 247 



locality regularly. " They come," says Mr Tunnard, " to the 

 roost with the wood pigeons, but actually roost close to- 

 gether, and apart from the other species. Up to 1863 there 

 was not one with us in south-east Lincolnshire. A person 

 may mistake them if flying about, but no one can mistake 

 the 'coo' where they are breeding. In 1872 or 1873," Mr 

 Tunnard continues, " I saw a stockdove my brother-in-law 

 had just shot in the north of Ireland — co. Donegal." 



In the north-east and north-west of Lincolnshire Mr 

 Cordeaux writes me '* that the stockdove thirty years ago was 

 rare in the north-east of Lincolnshire, but not uncommon in 

 the warrens and commons in the north-west corner of the 

 county. It is now very common in the north-east. It breeds 

 annually in some numbers in holes in the sea cliffs of Flam- 

 borough, and I am sure this was not the case ten years ago."* 

 Mr Cordeaux adds concerning the birds at Flamboro' Cliffs : 

 — " I have seen them myself fly out of fissures in the chalk 

 cliffs, as well as from the fine rabbit burrows in the shelving 

 mass of boulder clay, thirty feet in thickness, which caps the 

 chalk." The rockdoves nest only in the caves of the cliff 

 bottom, whereas these stockdoves nest high up, as above ex- 

 plained. The eastern form of rockdove found in India — C. 

 schimperi (Baily) — closely resembles the rockdove, and from 

 the grey rump also closely resembles the true stockdove. I 

 have a specimen here of a dove shot in figypt by Mr J. H. 

 Gurney, and kindly lent me for exhibition. This seems to 

 me to partake of the characteristics of the true rockdove and 

 also of those of the Indian C. schimperi, the rump being not 

 so wliite as in C. livia, but whiter than in C. schimperi from 

 India. Not having ' an Indian specimen, however, at hand 

 to compare with, I speak with reservation on this point. 

 Yet as far as I can recollect, specimens of C. schimperi {vera.) 

 are uniform grey, without any white on the rump. 



In Durham the stockdove appears to have been first re- 



* Mr Cordeaux adds that in the same way "many species once unknown 

 here are working their way northwards ; for instance, in Lincolnshire— the 

 Dartford warbler, blackstart {Sylvia titys), cirl-bunting (very common in one 

 locality), turtle dove, nightingale." It will be interesting at some future 

 date, perhaps, to record the first appearance of these species at other localities 

 in their advance northward. 



