Our Wild Pigeons. SI 



doves. Still, the naturalist of Selborne has not spoken 

 with his usual perspicacity on this point ; doubtless, be- 

 cause of the Rock- dove not being a denizen of his neigh- 

 bourhood nor yet the Stock breeding there, as he 

 alleges he had but slight acquaintance with either. 

 Montagu also supposed the two species to be the same, 

 though in the later edition of his " Dictionary," by 

 Newman, the separation is properly made. 



No doubt one of the causes which has led to the two 

 species having been so often and long confounded is, 

 that in many parts of England the Stock-dove is called 

 by the country people Rock, or, rather, " Rocky." It is 

 so in the western shires, and I think I have discovered 

 the reason. Instead of nesting exclusively in the old 

 stocks of trees, as most ornithological writers assert, or 

 in disused rabbit burrows, as stated by others, it breeds 

 in cliffs too, on ledges overshadowed by bush or projec- 

 tion of rock. This I can affirm, from having frequently 

 seen the nest so placed and had the young birds out of 

 it. Now, as the Ring-dove (Quest), frequenting the same 

 neighbourhood, never breeds but among the branches of 

 trees, and the true Rock is usually uuknown to them, 

 this cliff-nesting of the Stock, observed by country 

 people, would very naturally lead to their giving it the 

 name " Rocky/' to distinguish it from the more common 

 species, the Quest just as they have done. Yarreli's 

 description of the Stock-dove (copied by Mr. Morris, 

 author of a " History of British Birds/' with some slight 

 alteration of phraseology) is also misleading. He 

 speaks of its wing feathers, primaries, secondaries, and 

 tertiaries, being tipped with " leaden grey." There is 

 not a shade of grey observable on them near the extremi- 

 ties ; instead a dusky brown, at the tips approaching 



