ROCK DOVE. 291 



orange ; head and neck bluish grey, the sides of the latter 

 shining with green and purple reflections ; shoulders, upper 

 part of the back, and both sets of wing- coverts, french-grey ; 

 all the greater coverts with a black bar near the end, form- 

 ing a conspicuous black band, extending outwards and for- 

 wards to the edge of the wing ; primary and secondary 

 quill-feathers bluish-grey ; the tertials french-grey, tipped 

 with black, and with a conspicuous band of black below the 

 black band on the coverts, the light-coloured band of the 

 great wing- coverts intervening between the two dark 

 bands ; lower part of the back pure white ; rump and 

 upper tail- co verts pearl-grey ; tail-feathers twelve, of two 

 colours, the basal two-thirds pearl-grey with dark shafts, 

 the ends lead grey ; the chin bluish grey ; the throat 

 purple and green ; breast and all the under surface of 

 the body pearl grey ; under wing-coverts and axillary 

 plume white; legs and toes reddish orange; the claws brown. 



The whole length of the bird eleven inches and a half. 

 From the carpal joint to the end of the wing eight inches : 

 the first quill-feather considerably longer than the fourth, 

 but a little shorter than the second and third, which are 

 nearly equal in length, and the longest in the wing. 



The females are not quite so large as males, and their 

 colours generally less brilliant. Young birds in their first 

 or nestling plumage, before their autumnal moult, may 

 always be distinguished from the young of the Stock Dove 

 by the broad patch of pure white on the lower part of the 

 back. 



Of the Rock Dove, and its descendants, among our Dove 

 house-pigeons, it is remarked, that they very seldom or ever 

 roost on trees, or even settle in them, unless wounded by 

 shot, or under peculiar circumstances, such as mentioned by 

 Mr. Eyton in the account of the Stock Dove in his work 



u 2 



