24 The Naturalist in Siluria. * 



pigeons ceased to perch upon the trees, confining them- 

 selves to tops of walls, roofs, and chimneys ; and since I 

 have never seen one of them set foot upon a branch. 



I need not here give a description of the Quest, its 

 mode of nidification, nor its ordinary habits. All this, if 

 not already known, can be learnt from the encyclopaedias. 

 I will only add, that in the valley of the Wye, well 

 wooded everywhere, it is one of our commonest birds. 

 In spring and summer I could not gaze out of my window 

 for twenty minutes at a time without seeing one or more 

 sitting motionless on the branch of a tree, winging their 

 way through the air, or it might be walking over the 

 ground, constantly bowing or ducking their heads; from 

 which habit they derive their Latin name columba, from 

 the Greek kolumban, to dive. It is also the origin of 

 their more correct appellation of dove. 



The Stock-dove (Columba oenas) is not so common 

 upon the Wye, nor, I believe, anywhere in England, as 

 the Quest. It is, however, anything but rare; and, al- 

 though to a certain extent migratory, we have it in 

 Herefordshire all the year round, numbers breeding in 

 this neighbourhood. It is the species which so much 

 puzzled the naturalist of Selborne ; and, by his account, 

 was altogether a bird of passage in that part of the 

 country. In speaking of it as not being the progenitor 

 of our House pigeons, he says : (t It is manifestly larger 

 than the common house-dove, against the usual rule of 

 domestication, which generally enlarges the breed." 



The conclusion is not universally correct, as I can 

 show by a reference to the wild turkey and its tame 

 descendant. But in this case even the premises are in 

 default, for the Stock-dove, so far from being larger 

 than the House-dove, is rather less. The Eing-dove is 



