COLUMBID.E. 255 



Rock-Dove. Columba livia, Bonnat. 



[Cliff-Culver, Dev.-] 



An occasional visitor to some localities on the sea-coast, and a few are 

 said to breed in the caves or fissures of the sea-cliff's. 



" Xear Orchard in Combmartin there mounteth up a hill to a great 

 height,'' says Eisdon, "just upon the cliffs of the sea, where in a hole, 

 infinite numbers of doves do frequent, called by a particular name of the 

 place Cliff-Culvers." 



Polwhele states (Hist, of Devon, vol. i. chap. 6) that the Eock-Dove 

 existed in his time (1797) on the north coast near Combe ^Martin, and at 

 Liuidy Island. There are none at the latter locality at the present day, 

 and there have been none since we became acquainted with the island. 

 It was formerly also found on the rocky parts of the South Coast (E. M., 

 Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830 ; Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). The earlier writers on 

 Devonshire ornithology, however, seem to have confused this species with 

 the Stock-Dove, and it is therefore difficult to decide to which species 

 their observations api)ly. 



A "Eock-Dove" was shot in December 1818, near Egg Buckland 

 (E. 'SL, Eowe's Peramb. Dartmoor, 1848). The Eock-Dove was found 

 on the rocky parts of the Dart between Dartmouth and Totncs (T. and K., 

 1830). Bellamy says he saw one in June 1839 on the rocks in a small 

 cave at Dartmouth (Xat. Hist. S. Devon, p. 209). 



Mr. E. A. S. Elliot writes : — " There is no doubt that this species 

 breeds in an extensive quarry-pit, now disused, near Bcesands, and also 

 near the Start Point, as I have seen old birds about there in the spring, 

 but whether they are descendants from escaped tame birds, as some 

 assert, I am not prepared to say. I shot two immature birds in the fall 

 of 1880 which were apparently wild." (MS. Notes.) 



Although it is extremely probable that in some instances stray farm- 

 yard Pigeons which have taken to the cliffs, and also Stock-Doves, have 

 been confounded with this species, we are confident both from our own 

 knowledge, and also from the reports of observers who arc not likely to 

 have been in error, that a few Eock-Dovos still exist on the cliffs of 

 North Devon. Only this last spring (1.S91) Mr. H. A. Evans, of 

 "Westward Ho ! College, wrote to inform us that a pair were seen at 

 Northam. We wore spending part of the Long Vacation in 1850 with a 

 reading-party at Lynmouth, and continually saw three or four pairs of 

 Kock-Doves on tlie Countesbury Hill, and (|rnte recently tlie birds have 

 been detected in the same locality. We one day got close to an un- 

 duubted Eock-Dove near the Cricket Field at Instow, and heard of others 

 having been seen on a stubble-field a little distance inland. 



The two dark bands upon the wings, and also the eonK])icuous wliito 

 nirap, are sufficient distinctions to prevent the Eock-Dove from Iteing 

 confounded with any other s])ccies, but will not servo as a distinction 

 from the Common Domestic " I5lue Eoek," which sometimes beconns wild 

 and associules with Eing-Doves and Stock-Doves. Such a specimen was 



