THE ROCK-DOVE. 75 



but in 1834, a pair built a nest in the Zoological Gardens, 

 and two eggs were produced. 



THE STOCK-DOVE (Columba (Enas). 



That is a smaller species than the ring-dove, and in Eng- 

 land it is rare, excepting in the midland counties. The 

 southern parts of Europe are its principal haunts ; but it is a 

 roaming bird, and migrates in large flocks. It is a percher, 

 and always nestles in holes of trees, or in tall bushes, which 

 might have convinced authors that it could not well be the 

 parent stock of those numerous varieties which live in pigeon- 

 holes, and never perch or build in trees, though the pigeon- 

 houses are in the middle of woods. If the domestic pigeon 

 had been derived from the stock-dove (or the " bush-dove," as 

 it is sometimes called with more propriety), we should cer- 

 tainly have found it resting upon, or moaning its note from 

 the trees of the garden rather than the roof of the house. 

 The only note of the stock-dove is a hollow grunt. The same 

 pair build for years in the same place. This bird has no 

 white on the rump, no bars on the wings ; it is thicker at the 

 shoulders and on the breast than the domestic pigeon. The 

 legs and feet are not so strong, the former are not so much 

 feathered, and the claws are not so well armed on their under- 

 sides with pads and tubercles. 



THE ROCK-DOVE (Columba lima). 



That is the true "stock-dove" from which the domestic 

 ones are descended, whether those that were first kept in 

 pigeon-houses in this country were natives of the country or 

 imported. These birds do not of course build pigeon-houses, 

 but they choose high cliffs, the acclivity of which may pro- 

 tect them from enemies ; they nestle in the holes of those 

 cliffs j they sit on the points and little ledges of the rocks, 



