CH. Iv.] FLIGHTS OF STOCK DOVES. 201 
whither these birds resort, I am told, in great 
numbers at that season. 
The Stock Dove is surprisingly rare in the Isle 
of Wight, considering how widely the range of 
that bird extends, and the fact that it is not unfre- 
quently met with along the western part of the 
coast of Hampshire. I believe I have never myself 
seen one of these birds or heard its note in the 
Island, nor have I ever heard of any being seen 
there, except on two occasions, these occurring as 
far back as about thirty-six and eighteen years 
ago respectively, and both in the neighbourhood 
of Brixton. They were described to me by two 
intelligent men, who saw them, as coming in great 
numbers “like a cloud of Rooks” from a north- 
easterly direction, pitching “under the down,” 
and feeding onwards, without altering their course, 
the hindmost birds flying over the heads of the 
advanced column, and feeding in front, until they 
were, in their turn, similarly passed by the rear- 
guard, as Starlings may be observed sometimes to 
do. This desultory mode of settling is by the way, 
I apprehend, exactly what Homer meant by the 
word, wpoxa0itovrwy, in his graphic description of 
waterfowl, J7. B. 459—463. I have, of course, no 
positive proof that the birds of which these flocks 
