Stock and Ring Doves 371 



a pair or two of strayed tame pigeons frequenting the same 

 building as the Stock Doves, and in one case I found a nest 

 belonging to either species, upon the same wall-head, and 

 within a few feet of each other. From the social disposition 

 thus displayed, it is easy to understand how the Stock Dove 

 came to receive its common name, and to be regarded 

 (erroneously of course) as the parent of our domestic 

 pigeons l ; though some authors consider that the derivation 

 is from the bird's fondness for building in the stock of a tree. 

 In Wales, where rock nesting sites so greatly predominate 

 over suitable trees, it might reasonably have been expected 

 that the Stock Dove would most commonly resort to cliffs 

 for breeding purposes ; but in the neighbourhood of Llanu- 

 wchllyn at any rate, just the opposite is the case. A few 

 nests may, of course, always be found in rocks, but in the 

 majority of cases a hollow tree is chosen. Upon one 

 occasion, I saw a nest in the ventilating slit in the wall of 

 the hay-loft over a cow-house, which stood by itself in the 

 middle of a field, and the young ones were annexed by a 

 farm lad, who looked upon them as the produce of birds 

 strayed from his father's loft. Two and often three broods 

 are reared in the course of a year, the second clutch of eggs 

 being frequently laid almost immediately the first young 

 ones have left the nest. Sometimes they are deposited in 

 the old nest, in other cases a new site is selected, often very 

 near the first. 



The Wood -Pigeon 2 is fairly, but not excessively 

 numerous round Llanuwchllyn, and, unlike the last species, 

 follows the growth of trees everywhere into the mountain 

 glens. Its great partiality for the flat branches of Spruce, 

 or Silver Firs, is also shown by its increase wherever these 

 trees have been planted. No other tree has greater attrac- 

 tions than these for winged game of any kind, whether 

 Pheasants, Woodcocks, or Pigeons ; and the manner in 

 which those have flourished, which have been planted in 



1 In Merioneth it is generally called simply Colomen, or pigeon, sometimes 

 Colomen ddof, tame pigeon. 



2 Colomen-y-coed, wood pigeon, is the common name ; but Cuddan^ or 

 Ysguthan, signifying a cooing bird, are also in use. 



