246 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



it is spreading in Ireland. "It breeds," he says, "in Antrim, 

 Down, Armagh, Louth, and Wicklow, and doubtless also in 

 King's and Queen's Counties, where it is reported to be seen 

 more or less frequently ; also recently in Carlow, though for- 

 merly unknown there. Still scarce and local. 



Range outside the British Islands. The Stock- Dove inhabits 

 the whole of the Western Palaearctic Region, and extends 

 eastward to Turkestan and Northern Afghanistan and Lob- 

 Noor. In Scandinavia and Russia it breeds up to about 

 60 or 61 N. Lat. 



Habits. The Stock-Dove has somewhat different habits from 

 those of the Wood-Pigeon. It is seldom found in flocks, like 

 the latter bird, and more often is met with singly. I have 

 often flushed the Stock-Dove from the dense thickets of small 

 branches which grow at the foot of ancient lime-trees, arid 

 become choked with dead leaves ; but I never could discover 

 that it was nesting in these situations, though the cover was 

 dense enough to afford it the shelter which the bird loves, and 

 there was probably some hole in the tree itself which I failed 

 to discover. In old elm-trees covered with ivy I have often 

 found it nesting, and seeking the same kind of hole as the 

 Jackdaws, which also nested, in the proportion of six to one of 

 the Stock- Doves, in the same cluster of hoary elms. Like the 

 Wood-Pigeon, the Stock-Dove resorts to some favourite and 

 retired clump to roost; but whereas the former bird often 

 selects a dense grove of yews or fir-trees on some island in. a 

 lake, I have never found the Stock-Doves resorting to such 

 haunts. Above the old yew-avenue in Avington Park are 

 many elm and ash trees, and to these the Stock-Doves used 

 to resort as evening closed in, and I have procured several 

 specimens for the British Museum by waiting for them in the 

 twilight, when they used to flock into the high trees, doubtless 

 intending to descend later on to roost in the shade of the great 

 yews. The food of the Stock-Dove is very similar to that of 

 the Wood-Pigeon, but I have never known the latter bird to 

 show any preference for mustard-seed, whereas the Stock- Dove 

 and the Turtle-Dove do great damage to the mustard-fields 

 when the seed is ripe. In winter the Stock-Dove often mixes 

 with the flocks of Wood- Pigeons. 



