WOOD-PIGEONS. 245 



with us perpetually confound the stock-dove with the ring- 

 dove. * 



For my own part, I readily concur with you in supposing 

 that house-doves are derived from the small blue rock-pigeon, 

 for many reasons. In the first place, the wild stock-dove is 

 manifestly larger than the common house-dove, against the 

 usual rule of domestication, which generally enlarges the 

 breed. Again, those two remarkable black spots on the 

 remiges of each wing of the stock-dove, which are so charac- 

 teristic of the species, would not, one should think, be totally 

 lost by its being reclaimed ; but would often break out among 

 its descendants. But what is worth a hundred arguments* is 

 the instance you give in Sir Roger Mostyn's house- doves in 

 Caernarvonshire ; which, though tempted by plenty of food 

 and gentle treatment, can never be prevailed on to inhabit 

 their cote for any time ; but, as soon as they begin to breed, 

 betake themselves to the fastnesses of Ormshead, and deposit 

 their young in safety amidst the inaccessible caverns and 

 precipices of that stupendous promontory. 



Naturam expellas furca . . . tamen usque recurret. 



I have consulted a sportsman, now in his seventy-eighth 

 year, who tells me, that fifty or sixty years back, when the 

 beechen woods were much more extensive than at present, the 

 number of wood-pigeons was astonishing ; that he has often 

 killed near twenty in a day ; and that, with a long wild-fowl 

 piece, he has shot seven or eight at a time on the wing, as 

 they came wheeling over his head : he moreover adds, which 

 I was not aware of, that often there were among them little 

 parties of small blue doves, which he calls rockiers. The 

 food of these numberless emigrants was beech-mast and some 

 acorns ; and particularly barley, which they collected in the 

 stubbles. But of late years, since the vast increase of turnips, 

 that vegetable has furnished a great part of their support in 



* There are three species of wild pigeon in Britain, besides the turtle- 

 dove, the ring-dove, columba palumbus, the stock-dove, columba oenas, 

 and the rock-dove, columba lima. The two latter are very nearly allied ; 

 but a very strong distinctive mark is, that the stock-dove is larger than 

 the rock-dove, and the latter is white on the lower part of the back, 

 whereas the stock-dove is ash-coloured. It is now generally believed 

 that the rock-dove is the progenitor of all our domestic breeds of pigeons. 

 There is one circumstance which renders this opinion pretty conclusive, 

 and that is, we never find the domestic pigeon taking to trees to build, 

 when they become wild, but always resorting to old ruins, or to rocks. 

 The ring-dove is much larger than the other two species. ED. 



