The Stock-dovk.- 



-BIEDS.- 



-The Eock-dove. 



389 



distinctly exhibits tlie soft and somewhat inflated skin 

 described as characteristic of the Pigeons in general ; 

 the nostrils are in the form of longitudinal slits near 

 the front of this basal inflation ; and the tarsi and toes 

 are of moderate length. The first species to which we 

 shall refer is — 



THE STOCK-DOVE [Colaiaha <Z7«n.s) —Plate 17, fig. 

 61. Tliis is rather a rare and local British species, 

 found only iu the southern and midlaml counties of 

 England. In the south of Europe it is abundant, but 

 visits the central and northern parts of the continent 

 only in the summer, and many individuals appear to 

 migrate in the autumn into Africa even from Italy and 

 the islands of the Mediterranean. It inhabits woods 

 and breeds in the holes of trees, especially in those 

 which occur so commonly in the heads of pollard-oaks 

 and willows. In tliose districts, however, in which 

 trees are scarce, such as some parts of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, the Stock-dove makes its nest in the rabbit 

 burrows, or in the midst of a thick furze bush. The 

 eggs are two in number and pure white. The voice of 

 the Stock-dove is a grunting or rumbling note, very 

 different from the musical and plaintive coo which we 

 are accustomed to associate with the idea of a dove, and 

 far from agreeable. Its food consists of young leaves, 

 berries, and seeds of various kinds, according to the 

 season ; and during the winter it associates in flocks 

 with the Iling-doves, wliich it resembles in its mode 

 of life. The length of the Stock-dove is between thir- 

 teen and fourteen inches. 



THE EING-DOVE {Columha Palmnhus), also calleil 

 the Cushat and the Wood-pigeon, is a larger species 

 than the preceding, some specimens measuring seven- 

 teen inches in length. It is of a bluish-gi'ay colour, 

 with the wing-primaries lead-gray, narrowly margined 

 externally with white, and with a portion of the wing- 

 coverts white ; the neck and breast are purple-red, and 

 the feathers of the sides of the neck are largely tippeil 

 with white, in such a manner as to represent portions 

 of several white rings encircling the neck ; the tail- 

 feathers exhibit three shades of gray, the palest in 

 the middle, with the exception of the two central 

 ones, which are bhiish-gray, with the tips lead colour. 

 The irides are yellow, the bill reddish-orange, and 

 the feet red. 



Like the preceding species, this, which is the largest 

 European pigeon, inhabits the woods both of this coun- 

 try and of the continent of Europe ; it is most abundant 

 in the south, and is only a summer visitor to the most 

 northern countries, such as Norway and Sweden. It 

 is particularly fond of thick plantations of firs, in which 

 it delights to build, and here its tender cooing notes 

 may be heard throughout the spring and summer. 

 The nest is built upon the branches of trees, and is 

 composed of a few sticks laid across one another. 

 The eggs are two in number and white. 



THE ROCK-DOVE {Columha livia), the parent stock 

 of our domestic pigeons, is a very widely distributed 

 species, occurring, apparently in a wild state, in all 

 parts of the Old World. The wild birds are rather 

 less than twelve inches in length, and are of a bluish- 

 gray colour, with the lower parts of the back pure 

 white, two black bands across the wings, and the tliroat 



exhibiting beautiful glossy purple and green tints ; the 

 lower surface is pearl-gray, as are also the tail-feathers, 

 except at tlie tips, where they are lead colour. Our 

 dove-cote pigeons approach very closely in all these 

 characters to the original wild stock ; but the varieties 

 which have been produced in what are called l\\e fancy 

 breeds of pigeons are almost innumerable, and many of 

 them differ so much from each other, and from the 

 common parents of the whole, that it would seem at 

 fust sight almost impossible that they should all spring 

 from the same species. Almost every part of the birds 

 takes part m these remarkable changes; the bill and 

 feet, the character of the plumage, are changed to a 

 very considerable extent ; the colour varies from pure 

 white to deep black, and exhibits almost every possi- 

 ble mixture of the intervening tints, and in one variety 

 even the number of feathers in the tail is greatly 

 increased. The Tumblers, so called from their curi- 

 ous liabit of turning over backwards in the air, present 

 the closest resemblance in form to the common pigeon, 

 but in them the head, bill, and feet are small ; these 

 characters occur also in several other breeds, of whi(^h 

 we may mention the Jacobins, which have the feathers 

 of tire sides of the head and neck curled, so as to form 

 a sort of ruff; and the FaiitaiJs, in which we find the 

 tail-feathers increased to thirty-six, or throe times their 

 natural number, forming a broad arched tad. The 

 Carriers, which are large birds, with tlie bill elongated 

 and the feet large, are distinguished by tlie gi'eat 

 development of the nakeil skin at the base of the bill, 

 which forms a large warty wattle. This character is 

 also presented, although to a less extent, by the nearly- 

 allied breeds called Horsemen and Drar/ooTis. These 

 latter birds, but especially the Carriers, are remarkable 

 for the degree in which they possess the power, com- 

 mon indeed to all the pigeons, but in a less degree, of 

 finding their way home from long distances — a facidfy 

 which has caused them to be employed from time 

 immemorial in the rapid and secret conveyance of 

 intelligence. 



THE PASSENGER PIGEON [Edopistes mifjratorius), 

 which is an inhabitant of the United States, is 

 remarkable on account of the prodigious numbers in 

 which it associates together, and the extraordinary 

 migrations performed by these vast flocks. Tliese 

 migrations appear to be undertaken in search of food, 

 especially beech mast, of which these pigeons are very 

 fond ; and when they have consumed the wliole supply 

 of this in any given spot in the forest, they betake 

 themselves to some other district, perhaps at a distance 

 of many miles, but still residing in the place where 

 they first took up their abode, to which they regularly 

 return every evening after their foraging expeditions. 

 Wilson mentions one of these roosting-places in Ken- 

 tucky, which was said to extend through the woods for a 

 distance of forty miles, with a breadth of several miles. 

 In those spots the pigeons also breed ; they produce 

 only one young one at a time, but breed several times 

 in the year, and as the nests are very numerous and 

 close together, they are plundered to a vast extent of 

 their nearly full-grown inmates by the inhabitants of 

 the country for many miles round the breeding-place. 

 The pigeons are also shot and knocked down in vast 



