30 The Naturalist in Silurid. 



vant ornithologist, records it as breeding in the Stanner 

 Rocks of Radnorshire, a trappean formation altogether 

 away from the sea. Yet Yarrell says : " The Rock-dove, 

 as its name implies, is a species which in its natural and 

 wild state inhabits high rocks near the sea- coast, in the 

 cavities of which it lives the greater part of the year, 

 only venturing as far inland as may be necessary to visit 

 the nearest cornfields/' 



Indeed, reviewing the whole literature of our native 

 columbidce, I find it replete with error. To begin with 

 Bewick, his portrait of the Stock-dove is an excellent 

 likeness of the Rock, but not at all like the bird it was 

 designed to represent. Pennant confounded the two 

 species, saying : " The small sort that is frequent on 

 most of our cliff's is only a variety of the wild pigeon." 

 By wild pigeon a very indefinite title he meant the 

 Stock-dove, further discoursing of it thus : " The tame 

 pigeon, and all its beautiful varieties, derive their origin 

 from one species the Stock-dove; the English name 

 implying its being the stock or stem from which the other 

 domestic kinds sprung." (!) All these assertions are 

 alike wide away from the truth; for, not only is the " small 

 sort that is frequent on most of our cliffs" a distinct 

 species, and no mere variety, but from it, and likely it 

 alone, have descended all our tame breeds. Such, at 

 least, is the general belief at present existing among 

 ornithologists. And the name " Stock " has nothing to 

 do with its being the progenitor of domestic pigeons, 

 but comes from its nesting in the stocks of old trees. 



It is all the stranger that Pennant should have made 

 these mistakes, seeing that Gilbert White, from whom he 

 obtained most of his information, evidently knew there 

 was a specific distinction between the Rock and Stock 



