10 COLUMBIA. 



were seen by many ornithologists. By the same plan 

 Mr. Harting also proved that the Pigeons which frequented 

 the Dorsetshire cliffs about Lul worth Cove were not, as had 

 been generally supposed, Rock Doves, but Stock Doves. 

 There can, indeed, be little doubt that in several locali- 

 ties a similar error has prevailed; and this is certainly 

 the case in the Undercliff district of the Isle of Wight, 

 where the Editor can state from personal knowledge that 

 the Stock Dove is the species which nests in abundance in 

 the holes of the wooded crags near Ventnor. It also nests 

 in the sea cliffs of Flamborough, where, however, the Rock 

 Dove is also found. Under these circumstances it is not so 

 strange that this species should have been confounded with 

 the Rock Dove, for it appears to be about the same size when 

 on the wing, and although it has not a white rump, yet in its 

 light and rapid flight it far more closely resembles the Rock 

 than its larger and heavier congener the Ring Dove. 



The eggs, two in number, are oval and white, of a some- 

 what more creamy tint than those of C. palumbus, and 

 measure about 1*5 in length by 1*1 in breadth. They are 

 usually laid about the commencement or middle of April, 

 but Mr. C. Mafchew Prior states that fledged young may often 

 be found by the third week of that month, and he also found 

 two fresh eggs in a hollow ash- tree on 2nd October, 1875.* 

 Incubation lasts seventeen or eighteen days. In its habits 

 this species resembles the Ring Dove, but its note is far less 

 distinct and less prolonged, and may not inaptly be described 

 as grunting. Its food is naturally somewhat similar ; but 

 the late Mr. Rodd remarked that in the case of a bird of each 

 species shot at the same discharge, whereas the crop of the 

 Ring Dove contained a great pulp of clover leaves, turnip- 

 tops and bulbs, that of the 'Stock Dove contained not a leaf 

 of clover, but an egg-full of charlock seeds, some barley and 

 several weed seeds. 



Columba oenas is, in fact, a south-eastern species which is 

 gradually extending its range northwards and westwards. 

 It has occurred in the Scilly Islands, and sometimes visits 



* Zoologist, 1879, p. 338. 



