THE STOCK DOVE 127 



indeed to a later date, we find that this bird 

 was absolutely unknown in Scotland, although 

 to be found, if somewhat sparsely, in certain 

 localities in England. Dresser 1 quotes from a 

 note in the Ibis of 1865, by Mr. A. G. More, as 

 follows : * The bird seems to be most numerous 

 in some of the midland and eastern counties of 

 England, and has not been observed in either 

 Scotland or Ireland.' Gray 2 mentions the stock 

 dove merely in an 'observation,' under the 

 heading of the ring dove, as having been re- 

 corded from Caithness and once from Orkney, 

 and seems to have been somewhat doubtful as 

 to its identification. The phenomenal increase 

 of these birds up to 1883 has been recorded 

 by Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown 3 and its subsequent 

 stages in his volumes on the Vertebrate Fauna 

 of Moray and Tay Basins. In the latter 

 volume, p. 263, he says : 'At the present time 

 the stock dove is a more abundant species than 

 the former-time wood pigeon at least so it is 

 often reported to me by observant gamekeepers 

 in my own district of central Scotland and by 

 others who have frequent opportunities of 

 making observations.' 



1 Birds of Europe. - Birds of West of Scotland, 1871. 



3 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh of 

 that year. 



