290 DOVES. 



As to the wild wood-pigeon, the oenas, or vinago, 

 of Ray, I am much of your mind ; and see no reason 

 for making it the origin of the common house -dove : 

 but suppose those that have advanced that opinion 

 may have been misled by another appellation, often 

 given to the oenas, which is that of stock- dove. 



Unless the stock- dove in the winter varies greatly 

 in manners from itself in summer, no species seems 

 more unlikely to be domesticated, and to make a 

 house-dove. We very rarely see the latter settle on 

 trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the woods ; but 

 the former, as long as it stays with us, from Novem- 

 ber perhaps to February, lives the same wild life with 

 the ring-dove, (palumbus torquatus ;) frequents cop- 

 pices and groves, supports itself chiefly by mast, and 

 delights to roost in the tallest beeches. Could it be 

 known in what manner stock-doves build, the doubt 

 would be settled with me at once, provided they con- 

 struct their nests on trees, like the ring-dove, as I 

 much suspect they do. 



You received, you say, last spring, a stock-dove 

 from Sussex ; and are informed that they sometimes 

 breed in that country. But why did not your corre- 

 spondent determine the place of its nidification, whe- 

 ther on rocks, cliffs, or trees ? If he was not an adroit 

 ornithologist, I should doubt the fact, because people 

 with us perpetually confound the stock-dove with the 

 ring-dove. 



For my own part, I readily concur with you in sup- 

 posing that house-doves are derived from the small 

 blue rock-pigeon, for many reasons. In the first 

 place, the wild stock-dove is manifestly larger than 

 the common house -dove, against the usual rule of 

 domestication, which generally enlarges the breed. 

 Again, those two remarkable black spots on the 

 remiges of each wing of the stock- dove, which are so 

 characteristic of the species, would not, one should 



