92 WHITE 



the young so fledged that they all escaped from him ; but dis- 

 covered that a good house had been kept : the larder was well- 

 stored with provisions ; for he brought down a young blackbird, 

 jay, and house-martin, all clean picked, and some half devoured. 

 The old birds had been observed to make sad havoc for some 

 days among the new-flown swallows and martins, which, being 

 but lately out of their nests, had not acquired those powers 

 and command of wing that enable them, when more mature, 

 to set such enemies at defiance. 



LETTER XLIV 



SELBORNE, Nov. 30^, 1780. 



DEAR SIR, Every incident that occasions a renewal of our 

 correspondence will ever be pleasing and agreeable to me. 



As to the wild wood-pigeon, the CEnas, 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 CEnas, 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 No- 

 vember 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, pro- 

 vided 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 



