426 THE STOCK-DOVE. 



tions, has written a most vivid account of them. After professing his 

 belief that the chief object of the migration is the search after food, 

 and that the birds, having devoured all the nutriment in one part of 

 the country, take wing in order to feed on the beech-mast of another 

 region, he proceeds to describe a breeding-place seen by himself in Ken- 

 tucky, which was several miles in breadth, wag said to be nearly forty 



Pigeons. 



1. White-crowned Pigeon. 2. Zenaida Dove. 



miles in length, and in which every tree was absolut(!ly loaded with 

 nests. All the smaller branches were destroyed by the birds, many of 

 the large limbs were broken off and thrown on the ground, while no 

 few of the grand forest trees themselves were killed as surely as if the 

 axe had been employed for their destruction. The Pigeons had arrived 

 about the 10th of April, and left by the end of May. 



The Stock-Dove derives its name from its habit of building its nest 

 in the stocks or stumps of trees. It is one of our British Pigeons, and 

 is tolerably common in many parts of England. 



It is seldom found far northward, and even when it does visit such 

 localities it is only as a summer resident, making its nest in warmer 

 districts. As has already been mentioned, the nest of this species is 

 made in the stocks or stumps of trees, the birds finding out some con- 

 venient hollow and placing their eggs within. Other localities are, 

 however, selected for the purpose of incubation, among which a deserted 

 rabbit-burrow is among the most common. The nest is hardly worthy 

 of the name, being a mere collection of dry fibrous roots laid about 

 three or four feet within the entrance, and just thick enough to keep the 

 eggs from the ground, but not sufficiently woven to constitute a true nest. 



The head, neck, back, and wing-coverts are bluish gray, the primary 

 quill feathers of the wing taking a deeper hue, the secondaries being 



