STOCK DOVE 



Columba anas 



T is only of late years that the Stock Dove has become 

 at all common in Scotland. In 1877 and 1878 we have two 

 writers who mention that the bird has occurred only once 

 or twice, and in the central counties, speaking of the fact 

 as a great rarity. To-day it is a common though locally 

 distributed resident in most counties, and seems to be 

 increasing. In England and Wales it is a well-known 

 bird, though somewhat local, but seems to be uncommon in Ireland. 



The Stock Dove is hardly a bird of the woods, though its favourite 

 breeding-places are hollow trees ; it seems to prefer flat open country, studded 

 with little clumps of old trees, and intersected by streams fringed with pollard 

 willows. Often it will make its home in the stupendous cliffs of some rugged 

 coast, or in the rocky glens on some wild mountain-side. The Stock Dove 

 is a very shy and wary bird, and flies off to the nearest cover on the slightest 

 alarm. It may be seen in trees, running along the branches with great agility, 

 often spreading out its tail like a fan and puffing out its throat ; in the pairing 

 season, two males will often fight furiously for the possession of a female, 

 and go through all sorts of antics, bowing and scraping, and spreading their 

 tails. The flight of the Stock Dove is very rapid and light, and is performed 

 by an incessant and rapid beating of its pointed wings; in a wood it threads 

 its way among the branches with amazing rapidity, and with much less of 

 that loud flapping which distinguishes the Wood Pigeon. 



The Stock Dove feeds principally on grain and seeds, varying this diet 

 with acorns, beech-nuts, and a few berries. It does not seem to eat the 

 shoots of plants to the same extent as the Ring Dove does. Like most 

 pigeons, they are voracious feeders, and Stock Doves devour enormous quantities 

 of grain, compensating for this by the amount of good they do in keeping 

 VOL. iv. 2 o 141 



