STOCK DOVE. 47 



of their young, and soon forget them ; but the Stock Dove 

 is so careful of its eggs, that the male or female may at 

 any time be taken off their eggs, with any ordinary caution. 



The accurate description of the size, and of the colouring 

 of the plumage of the Stock Dove, becomes a very interesting 

 subject, as bearing upon the decision of the disputed question 

 of the origin of our domestic pigeons, or rather as it at once 

 decides the question. The entire length of the bird now 

 represented in our plate is about thirteen inches from the 

 tip of the beak to the extremity of the tail. Its beak is 

 rather longer, in comparison with the size of the bird, than 

 that of the former species, but its colour is at all ages 

 lighter than that of the rock dove. It is chocolate- 

 coloured with a white tip when young, reddish with a yellow 

 tip in middle age, and in adult birds it is yellow, with the 

 base blood-red. The inside of the beak is yellow ; the tongue 

 and swallow, whitish. The eyelids are bluish flesh-coloured ; 

 the iris dark red-brown. The legs are feathered half way 

 down in front, the remainder and the toes being covered Avith 

 scales of a blood-red colour : the soles and sides of the toes 

 are whitish ; the claws dusky. The head and neck of the 

 adult male are slate-coloured, the lower parts of the neck 

 reflecting metallic colours. The shoulders and back are slate- 

 coloured, and the lower parts of the back, the rump, and the 

 upper tail-coverts are also of the same slate-colour. The crop 

 is tinged with a beautiful blue grape hue, and is followed 

 over the under parts by a paler slate-colour than that of 

 the upper feathering. The wing-coverts are slate-coloured, 

 as well as the wings, on which latter is a row of black 

 blotches, which take the place of the two rows or bands of 

 black on the wing of the rock dove. The spurious wing 

 and quill feathers are dusky ; and the tail has a black band 

 at its extremity. 



The egg figured 144 is that of the Stock Dove. 



