STOCK DOVE. 117 
STOCK DOVE. 
Conumpa mnas, Linn. 
Pl. XVIL, fig. 15. 
Geogr. distr.—Southern Europe, N. W. Africa, eastward as far as 
Persia: in Great Britain chiefly confined to the midland and eastern 
counties of England. 
Food.—Young leaves of vegetables, peas, berries, acorns, mast, 
grain and other seeds. 
_ Nest.—Constructed of thin twigs or stems of plants, sometimes 
intertwined with rootlets, dried leaves, and a little moss. 
Position of nest.—In holes of old trees, in ivy clinging to trunks of 
cedars and firs, in fir trees and pollard hornbeams, and sometimes on 
the sand in rabbit-burrows about a yard from the entrance, or in 
crevices in rocks. 
Number of eggs.—2. 
Time of nidification.—_IV-VII; sometimes as late as October. 
This species, the almost uniform plum-colour of whose 
plumage distinguishes it from our other doves, is believed 
to be increasing in numbers in Great Britain: though local, 
it is to be found throughout England and Wales; in Scot- 
land and Ireland it is very rare. 
“The Stock Dove,’ says Seebohm, ‘‘can scarcely be 
regarded as a forest bird, though it is especially partial to 
well-timbered parks. It spends nearly all day in the open 
country, but frequents the skirts of the forests in order to 
find a breeding-place in the hollows of the old trees. It 
frequents the flat, open country of the lowlands, where the 
pollard willows provide it with a suitable nesting-site, and 
makes its home both on the stupendous sea-girt cliffs and 
the limestone crags or quarries of the moors. The portion 
of Sherwood Forest known as Birklands is a paradise for 
the Stock Dove, abounding as it does in hollow old oaks. 
It frequents this district throughout the year, and may be 
repeatedly seen flying to and from the woodlands to the 
neighbouring fields.” 
“In places where there are no hollow trees the Stock 
Dove often rears its young in the old nest of a Magpie or 
Crow; or in the dense ivy growing over trees or buildings.” 
—(Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. ii., p. 402). 
In Hewitson’s nesting days this species appears to have 
been tolerably common in Epping Forest, and he mentions 
having taken its eggs from pollard hornbeams. 
