244 DOVES. 



half devoured. * The old birds had been observed to make 

 gad havoc for some days among the new-flown swallows and 

 martens, which, being 'but lately out of their nests, had not 

 acquired those powers and command of wing that enable 

 them, when more mature, to set such enemies at defiance. 



LETTER XCIV. 

 TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



SELBORNE, November 30, 1780. 



DEAR SIR, ' Every incident that occasions a renewal of our 

 correspondence will ever be pleasing and agreeable to me. 



As to the wild wood-pigeon, the oenas, or vinago, of Ray, I 

 am much of your mind ; and see no reason for making it the 

 origin of the common house-dove : but suppose those that 

 have advanced that opinion may have been misled by another 

 appellation, often given to the oenas, which is that of stock- 

 dove. 



Unless the stock-dove in the winter varies greatly in manners 

 from itself in summer, no species seems more unlikely to be 

 domesticated, and to make a house-dove. We very rarely see 

 the latter settle on trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the 

 woods ; but the former, as long as it stays with us, from 

 November perhaps to February, lives the same wild life with 

 the ring-dove, (palumbus torquatus ;) frequents coppices and 

 groves, supports itself chiefly by mast, and delights to roost 

 in the tallest beeches. Could it be known in what manner 

 stock-doves build, the doubt would be settled with me at once, 

 provided they construct their nests on trees, like the ring- 

 dove, as I much suspect they do. 



You received, you say, last spring, a stock-dove from Sussex ; 

 and are informed that they sometimes breed in that country. 

 But why did not your correspondent determine the place of its 

 nidification, whether on rocks, cliffs, or trees ? If he was not 

 an adroit ornithologist, I should doubt the fact, because people 



* Speaking of the cruel propensities of this bird, Montagu says, *' The 

 more generous hawks, we have frequently observed, kill their prey as soon 

 as caught, by eating the head first ; whereas the buzzards, in particular, 

 begin eating their prey indiscriminately. We have several times taken 

 partridges and other birds from them, which had one side of the breast or 

 a thigh devoured, and the bird still alive." ED. 



