156 The Natural History of Selborne 



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 country. But why 

 did not your correspondent determine the place of its nidification, 

 whether on rocks, cliffs, or trees ? If he was not an adroit orni- 

 thologist 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 domestica- 

 tion, which generally enlarges the breed. Again, those two remark- 

 able black spots on the remiges of each wing of the stock-dove, 

 which are so characteristic 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 an hundred argu- 

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

 in Caernarvonshire ; 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, betake themselves 

 to the fastnesses of Ormshead [Great Orme's Head], and deposit 

 their young in safety amidst the inaccessible caverns and precipices of 

 that stupendous promontory. 1 



" Naturam ex fellas furca .... tamen usque recurret" 



1 The " stupendous promontory " of the Great Orme's Head is another 

 excellent example of the eighteenth-century point of view of nature. It is now 

 overrun by visitors from Llandudno, and was at no time a particularly formidable 

 eminence, except to sailors. ED. 



