THE WILD PIGEON, OR STOCK-DOTE. 



227 



about the third day some of the common food is to be found along with 

 it. As the Pigeons grow older, the proportion of common food is in- 

 creased ; so that by the time they are seven, eight, or nine days old, 

 the secretion of the curd ceases in the old ones, and of course no more 

 is found in the crop of the young. It is a curious fact, that the parent 

 Pigeon has, at first, power to throw up this curd without any mixture 

 of common food ; although, afterwards, both are thrown up, in the 

 proportion required for the young-ones. 



8TOCK-DOVB. 



THE WILD PIGEOX, OR STOCK-DOVE. 



THIS bird is of a bluish ash-color : the breast is dashed with a fine 

 changeable green and 

 purple ; and the sides 

 of the neck are of a 

 shining copper-color. 

 Its wings are marked 

 with two black-bars ; 

 one on the coverts, and 

 the other on the quill 

 feathers. The back is 

 white, and the tail 

 barred near the end 

 with black. The usual 

 weight is about four- 

 teen ounces. 



Multitudes of Wild 

 Pigeons visit this coun- 

 try in the winter, from 

 their more northerly summer retreats. They appear about November, 

 and again retire (except a few that breed with us) in the spring. While 

 the beech woods were suffered to cover large tracts of ground, the.se 

 birds used to haunt 

 them in myriads, 

 frequently extending 

 above a mile in 

 length, as they went 

 out in a morning to 

 feed. They are, how- 

 ever, still found in 

 considerable quantity, 

 forming their nests in 

 holes of rock, and old 

 towers, and in the 

 hollows of trees ; but 

 never, like the King- 

 dove, on the boughs. 



In a state of domes- 

 tication, these Pigeons are known to breed eight or nine times in the 

 15 



WILD PIG0. 



