CH. IV.] FLIGHTS OP STOCK DOVES. 201 



whither these birds resort, I am told, in great 

 numbers at that season. 



The Stock Dove is surprisingly rare in the Isle 

 of Wight, considering how widely the range of 

 that bird extends, and the fact that it is not unfre- 

 quently met with along the western part of the 

 coast of Hampshire. I believe I have never myself 

 seen one of these birds or heard its note in the 

 Island, nor have I ever heard of any being seen 

 there, except on two occasions, these occurring as 

 far back as about thirty-six and eighteen years 

 ago respectively, and both in the neighbourhood 

 of Brixton. They were described to me by two 

 intelligent men, who saw them, as coming in great 

 numbers "like a cloud of Rooks" from a north- 

 easterly direction, pitching "under the down," 

 and feeding onwards, without altering their course, 

 the hindmost birds flying over the heads of the 

 advanced column, and feeding in front, until they 

 were, in their turn, similarly passed by the rear- 

 guard, as Starlings may be observed sometimes to 

 do. This desultory mode of settling is by the way, 

 I apprehend, exactly what Homer meant by the 

 word, irpoKaOityvTwv, in his graphic description of 

 waterfowl, II. B. 459 463. I have, of course, no 

 positive proof that the birds of which these flocks 



