NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



37 



bird, jay, and house-martin, all clean picked, and some half devoured. 

 The old birds had been observed to make sad havoc for some days 

 among the new-flown swallows and martins, 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. 



LETTEE XLIY, 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Nov. SQth, 1780. 



DEAR SIR, Every incident that occasions a renewal of our corre- 

 spondence will ever be pleasing and agreeable to me. 



As to the wild wood-pigeon, the (Enas, or Vinago, of Eay, 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 (Enas, 

 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 domes- 

 ticated, and to make 

 an house-dove. We 

 very rarely see the 



%&: -m 

 ^ " 



it stays with us, from 



November perhaps to 



February, lives the 



same wild life with 



the ring-dove, Palum- 



bus tolrguatus ; fre- STOCK DOVB. 



quents 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 1 If he was not an adroit ornithologist I should 

 doubt the fact, because people with us perpetually confound the stock- 

 dove with the ring-dove. 



See Letter XXXIX., and note. 



