WILD PIGEONS. 299 



twilight, in order to find out his sleeping quarters. After 

 several " doubles," he at last roosted on an old apple 

 pollard in a neighbouring garden, returning every night 

 to the same branch of the same tree. At last he became 

 tame enough to pick grain out of my hand. As he was 

 evidently a bird of the year, I rather think he must have 

 been taken from the nest, and kept in a cage, but, having 

 made his escape, hunger may have forced him to beg a 

 meal. Poor fellow ! His departure was as sudden and 

 mysterious as his advent. We missed him one morning, 

 and he was never seen again. 



The next in size to the ring-dove is the wild pigeon, 

 or stock-dove. Considerable mistakes seem to have arisen 

 about this bird, some fancying it altogether migratory, 

 and others confounding it with the rock-dove, and tracing 

 it as the origin of the domestic pigeon. The habits of the 

 stock-dove are very different from those of the latter. 

 They are always in summer met with in pairs, perching 

 upon old trees, and building their nests in the decayed 

 hollows. I found two myself in the grounds of Park-place 

 in Berkshire, where a few stock-doves flock and roost with 

 the ring-doves every winter. I had several times seen one 

 of the pairs before the hatching time. They were very 

 wild, and flew more rapidly than ring-doves. About a 

 month after, I stumbled upon the nest in the fork of an 

 aged tree. It was only about ten feet from the ground ; 

 and I might have shot the female at any time flying off 

 the other nest was near the top of an ivy-girt birch. 

 These birds, as well as most of the pigeon tribe, lay two 



