250 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



regarding the latter county I will give you the information 

 contained in a note in the Field for June 2d, 1877, wherein 

 * Punt Gun ' says : — ' Some eight years or so ago the stock- 

 dove was, to the best of my belief, almost unknown in the 

 neighbourhood of Boston. . . . Now it is not at all uncommon 

 to see small flocks of a dozen or so, either by themselves, or 

 feeding with the common wood pigeon. They breed there 

 regularly.' " * 



In Lancashire I learn it is quite abundant, breeding along 

 the whole stretch of sandy coast between the mouth of the 

 Dee and Walney Island, as I am informed by my friend, Mr 

 r. S. Mitchell of Clitheroe, who is at present engaged in pre- 

 paring a handbook of the birds of Lancashire. He adds, "It 

 has been known to nest in the neighbourhood of Blackstone 

 Edge, near Eochdale, but is rare there. It also breeds near 

 Garstang, and has nested near Accrington within the last 

 four or five years. It has been seen near some rocks on the 

 lower slopes of Pendle Hill, near Clitheroe within the same 

 time, but no nest was found, and it appeared also on the 

 banks of the Hodder where that river divides Lancashire from 

 Yorkshire, at which locality there were also several pairs in 

 1882." 



In Cumberland Mr W. Kensey Dover, of Keswick, writing 

 to Mr T. Duckworth regarding this species, says : — " About 

 twenty-five years ago W. Greenup, of Keswick, found the 

 nest of the stockdove in an old tree root, which had been 

 blown over, on the west side of Bassenthwaite Lake." Mr 

 T. Duckworth adds that this is the first record of the bird he 

 knows of in this county {in lit. February 18th, 1883). Previous 



* Since the above was penned, I have instituted further inquiries into 

 the range and spread of the stockdove in Yorkshire, with the chief result 

 that I am informed, on the reliable authority of Mr Boyes, that warreners 

 now alive remember this bird being numerous on the Wolds sixty years ago, 

 when it was their perquisite. Thus it is a most interesting fact that at a 

 period when the stockdove was almost, if not quite, unknown elsewhere in 

 the county, it was common on the vast Wolds of the East Riding. I am 

 inclined to think that Yorkshire, and other neighbouring counties, have been 

 peopled with stockdoves from this source ; for with the gradual enclosure and 

 cultivation of these great warrens, we find a simultaneous and ecjually gradual 

 spread of this species has taken place. 



