becoming paler on the abdomen, and on the lower abdomen merging into pale dove-blue ; lower 

 flanks, under wing-coverts, and under tail-coverts dove-blue ; bill bright red at the base, and becoming 

 yellow towards the tip; iris straw-yellow; legs coral-red. Total length about 16"5-17 inches, culmen 

 1"05, wing 9 - 4, tail 6'5, tarsus 1*2. 



Adult Female. Closely resembles the male, but is a trifle smaller in size, and the patch on the sides of the 

 neck is smaller, the vinous coloration of the breast being a trifle paler. 



Young. Differs from the adult in being duller and paler in coloration, in lacking the white patches on the 

 sides of the neck, and in having the bill dull red at the base, and greyish towards the tip. 



The present species is generally distributed throughout Europe, except in the more boreal 

 districts, but does not range far into Asia, being there replaced by a closely allied species, 

 Columba casiotis. Southward it is found as far as North Africa, but does not range further 

 south in that continent, and is not recorded from the east side of North Africa. 



With us in Great Britain it is common and generally distributed, having increased largely 

 in numbers, it would seem, during the last few years. It is found with us at all seasons of the 

 year, and in some parts of the country is so numerous in the winter and spring as to do great 

 damage to the agriculturist. Mr. Cecil Smith writes to me, " In Somersetshire it is a resident 

 and mischievously numerous, being greatly on the increase. The capacity of the Wood-Pigeon 

 for food seems unlimited, as I have taken from the crop of a single individual as many as 

 seventy-seven beech-masts and one large acorn: this immense quantity of food was in the crop 

 only ; the gizzard, in this case, I did not examine. Luckily for the Guernsey farmers the Wood- 

 Pigeon is by no means a very common bird in the island, though its numbers are occasionally 

 increased by migratory flocks, especially in the autumn." The same increase in numbers is 

 observable in many other parts of England, and especially on the east coast. Mr. Cordeaux 

 writes of it (B. of Humb. Distr. p. 76) : — " Is much more numerous than formerly, having greatly 

 increased during the last ten years. Collects in immense flocks in the autumn, and in sharp 

 weather resorts to the cabbage- and turnip-fields to feed on the leaves of these plants. In severe 

 winters with much frost and snow, the ranks of our local birds probably receive considerable 

 accessions, either from the north or the continent, as I have observed they are invariably, at least 

 in this neighbourhood, much more numerous in a severe than in an open winter. 



" Wood-Pigeons are remarkably partial to salt water, and will daily during the summer 

 quarter resort to those drains in the marsh to which the tide has access, to drink the salt water." 



In Scotland the present species breeds throughout the country, its numbers being largely 

 augmented during the winter by migratory flocks, which probably, as is generally supposed by 

 the farmers on the east coast, come from Scandinavia. When in Haddingtonshire quite lately 

 I saw large numbers of Ring-Doves, and was told that these migratory flocks are sometimes so 

 numerous as to cause most serious injury to the farmers. Mr. Robert Gray, writing on this 

 subject, says (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 216), " That a large yearly accession to the winter flocks takes 

 place through migration is, I think, evident from the fact that the eastern counties only are 

 affected by the increase, and that, looking to the destruction of so many hundreds in one year, 

 no such increase can reasonably be traced to the results of a single breeding-season. Many years 



