ROCK DOVE. 301 



part of the back, and both sets of wing-coverts, French-grey ; 

 all the greater coverts with a black bar near the end, form- 

 ing a conspicuous black band, extending outwards and 

 forwards to the edge of the wing ; primary and secondary 

 quill-feathers bluish grey ; the tertials French-grey, tipped 

 with black, and with a conspicuous band of black below 

 the black band on the coverts, the light-coloured band of 

 the great wing-coverts intervening between the two dark 

 bands ; lower part of the back pure white ; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts pearl-grey ; tail-feathers twelve, of two 

 colours, the basal two-thirds pearl-grey with dark shafts, 

 the ends lead grey ; the chin bluish grey ; the throat purple 

 and green ; breast and all the under surface of the body 

 pearl grey ; under wing-coverts and axillary plume white ; 

 legs and toes reddish orange ; the claws brown. 



The whole length of the bird is eleven inches and a half. 

 From the carpal j oint to the end of the wing, eight inches : 

 the first quill-feather considerably longer than the fourth, 

 but a little shorter than the second and third, which are 

 nearly equal in length, and the longest in the wing. 



The females are not quite so large as males, and their 

 colours generally less brilliant. Young birds in their first 

 or nestling plumage, before their autumnal moult, may 

 always be distinguished from the young of the Stock Dove 

 by the broad patch of pure white on the lower part of the 

 back. 



Of the Rock Dove, and its descendants, among our Dove- 

 house Pigeons, it is remarked, that they very seldom or never 

 roost on trees, or even settle in them, unless wounded by 

 shot, or under peculiar circumstances, such as mentioned by 

 Mr. Eyton in the account of the Stock Dove in his work 

 on the Rarer British Birds. The Stock Dove, on the con- 

 trary, roosts and lives almost exclusively in the woods, and 

 the other distinctions of voice and plumage have been 



