STOCK-DOVE. 401 



COLUMBA ffiNAS. 

 STOCZ-DOVE. 



(Plate 17.) 



Columba oenas, JBriss. Orn. i. p. 86 (1760) ; Gmel Syst. Nat. i. p. 769; et auctorum 

 plurimorum — Latham, Temminch, Naumann, Bonaparte, Dresser, Saunders, &c. 

 Columba vinago, Briss. Orn. i. p. 86 (1760). 



Palumboena oenas (Briss.), Bonap. Compt. Send, xixix. p. 1107 (1854). 

 Palumboena columbella, Bonap. Compt. Bend, xliii. p. 838 (1856), 



The Stock-Dove is generally, though locally, distrihuted throughout the 

 whole o£ England and Wales. It is a resident bird, and its numbers are 

 said to be steadily on the increase. It is only known with certainty to 

 have occurred three times in Scotland, on each occasion in the central 

 districts, once in Stirlingshire and twice in Perthshire (Dalglish, ' Ibis," 

 1878, p. 382) ; and it has once been observed on migration in the Orkney 

 Islands (Gray, 'Birds of the West of Scotland," p. 320). In Ireland it is 

 unknown except ia the north-east, where, however, it is said to be very 

 rare (Lord Clermont, 'Zoologist," 1877, p. 383). Its occurrence in the 

 Channel Islands appears to be doubtful. 



The Stock-Dove is a resident in the extreme west of the Palsearctic 

 Region, but to the colder portions of its range it is only a summer visitor. 

 In Scandinavia it breeds up to lat. 62° ; in West Russia it is very rarely 

 found north of St. Petersburg, and in the Ural Mountains it is not known 

 to breed north of lat. 57°. The only proof of its occurrence in Siberia is 

 the doubtful evidence of an example in the Omsk Museum said to have 

 been killed in the neighbourhood. It has not been recorded from any of 

 the Atlantic islands, where it is replaced by several nearly allied but quite 

 distinct forms, but it is a common resident throughout Central and 

 Southern Europe and North-west Africa. Its occurrence in Egypt is 

 doubtful, and in Palestine it is said to be very rare ; but in Asia Minor 

 and the Caucasus it is a common resident. Severtzow says that it breeds 

 in West Turkestan ; but its occurrence in Persia is not satisfactorily proved. 

 In Central Asia it is represented by C. eversmanni, which may be dis- 

 tinguished by its pale rump, vinous crown, black base of the bill, and 

 slightly smaller size. This species winters in North India and Scind. 

 The Stock-Dove has no other very near ally, and may always be distiu- 

 guished from the dark-rumped* forms of the Rock-Dove by the well- 

 developed black bars across the wing-coverts of the latter. 



* It is a somewliat singular fact that the colour of the rump in this group of birds is 

 always correlated with that of the axillaries. 



VOL. II. ^^ 



