RARER BRITISH BIRDS. 



27 



WOOD PIGEON. 



Columba JEnas. LATHAM. 



GREAT confusion has been made by our British naturalists 

 of other days, and, indeed, by some of those of the present day, 

 among the species of the Pigeon tribe found in our isles, though 

 they are so few in number. The Columba ^Enas, or Wood 

 Pigeon, has, in most of their works, been confounded with the 

 C. Li via, or Rock Pigeon. The Rock Pigeon is, unquestionably, 

 the progenitor of our domestic breeds, and all its varieties, and 

 is the one figured by Bewick under the name of C. Jiiias, or 

 Wild Pigeon, the rump being white, and the black bars across 

 the wings broad ; while, on the contrary, the C. jEnas has the 

 rump of the same colour as the back ; and the wings, instead 

 of having bars of black, like its near ally the Rock Pigeon, 

 have merely a black spot on the exterior web of some of the 



