266 DOTES. 



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 man- 

 ners 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 November perhaps to February, lives the same wild life 

 with the ring-dove (palumbus torquatus) ; frequents coppices 

 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 construct 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 

 county. But why did not your correspondent determine 

 the place of its nidification, whether 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 supposing 

 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 charac- 

 teristic of the species, would not, one should think, be totally 

 lost by its being reclaimed ; but would often break out among 

 its descendants. But what is worth a hundred arguments, 

 is the instance you give in Sir Roger Mostyn's house-doves 

 in Carnarvonshire ; which, though tempted by plenty of food 

 and gentle treatment, can never be prevailed on to inhabit 

 their cote for any time ; but, as soon as they begin to breed, 



breeds amongst rocks on the sea-coast. I have seen them in Taswell Bay 

 near Swansea. ED. 



