1 36 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



passage, and one of the spring visitors to our shores." The 

 Rock Dove, from whence, as already intimated, our domestic 

 Pigeons have been derived, is distinguished from a yet re- 

 maining native species, the Stock Dove, not only by the 

 possession of a more slender form, but by the white colour 

 of the lower part of the back, and by two distinct bands of 

 leaden-black across the wings ; and it has been remarked 

 that these distinctive features are found in our ordinary 

 dovecot Pigeons ; arid when in the fancy kinds they become 

 by the breeder's art imperceptible, they are ever ready to 

 return. All the varieties of the domestic Pigeon breed with 

 each other, and with the wild Rock Dove : and without due 

 care all soon degenerate, as it is termed, and acquire the 

 original form and colouring. Some of the varieties of the 

 domestic bird we may notice when we come to write of the 

 original stock from whence it sprang. 



THE WOOD PIGEON, OR RING DOVE. Colum&a palumbus. 

 This is the most common, and most generally distributed, 

 as well as the largest of our native wild Pigeons, and is to be 

 met with in the wooded districts of our island, as well as of 

 the greater portion of Europe. In our own country it is, how- 

 ever, more sparingly distributed in the north, where the low 

 character of the woods is unfriendly to its presence. During 



