ROCK-DOVE. 405 



COLUMBA LIVIA. 

 ROCK-DOVE. 



(PLATE 17.) 



Columba livia, Briss. Orn. i. p. 82 (1760) ; Bonnat. Tabl. Encycl. et Method, i. p. 227 

 (1790) ; et auctorum plurimorum Temminck, Naumann, Bonaparte, 

 Dresser, Sounders, &c. 



Columba oenas *, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 279 (1766). 



Columba domestica, /3. livia, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 769 (1788). 



The Rock-Dove breeds on the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, and all 

 the adjacent islands, even including the distant St. Kilda, wherever the 

 rocks are precipitous enough to give it protection and provide suitable 

 breeding-places for it in their recesses. In a few similar localities inland, 

 in Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Somersetshire, and other counties, white-rumped 

 Pigeons are found breeding in an apparently wild state; but they are gene- 

 rally found mixed with birds with grey rumps, and are probably, in all 

 these cases, the descendants of escaped birds. 



The range of the Rock -Dove is much wider than that of any other 

 British Dove, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; and its exact 

 limits are very difficult to determine, in consequence of the impossibility 

 of discriminating between wild birds and those which have been or are in 

 a semi-domesticated state. To the former belong most of the colonies of 

 this bird on the coast, whilst those breeding inland in most cases probably 

 belong to the latter. It is a common resident on the Faroes. The only 

 colony known in Scandinavia is in the Stavanger Fjord, in lat. 59. In 

 France it is only known to occur in the Pyrenees, but is very common on 

 the coasts of South Portugal and South Spain and in the mountains of 

 the Sierra Nevada. It is found on all the Atlantic islands, including even 

 St. Helena. It breeds on all the rocky coasts and islands of the Mediter- 



* Dresser and Saunders both violate the rules of the British Association in adopting 

 the name of Columba cenas for the Stock-Dove. This bird may be the C. oenas of the 10th 

 edition of the ' Systema Naturae ' ; but it is absolutely certain that the Rock-Dove is the 

 C. oenas of the 12th edition, the words " dorso postico albo " having been inserted in the 

 middle of the diagnosis in the later work. If names which are not clearly defined are to 

 be rejected, no insertion of the word ' partim ' or ' in part' after them is the slightest 

 excuse for their retention ; in fact Saunders (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, pp. 649-650) inserts 

 precisely the same expression in brackets as a reason for rejecting the name of Sterna 

 hirundo of Linnaeus that he adopts (Yarr. Brit. B. iii. p. 8) without brackets as his reason 

 for admitting the name of Columba oenas of Linnaeus. It is not easy to see on what 

 grounds the presence or absence of brackets should reverse the rule. 



