316 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



Stock Doves. Mr J. W. Harris formerly assured me that the 

 Bock Dove bred at St. Bees ; but I find on examining the birds 

 on which his opinion was based that they are not pure-bred. 

 The only blue pigeons which I have myself obtained from the 

 locality were Stock Doves. Readers interested in the domesti- 

 cation of pigeons, such as those which once bred in the churches 

 of Warwick and Skelton in Cumberland, and Morland in West- 

 morland, should consult a paper contributed by the Chancellor 

 of Carlisle to the ninth volume of the Transactions of the 

 Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological Society. 



TURTLE DOVE. 



Turtur communis, Selby. 



Dr. Heysham .knew the Turtle Dove as an occasional straggler 

 to Cumberland, and such it has continued to be, for its visits to 

 Lakeland during the last hundred years have never yet resulted 

 in the* permanent establishment of the species in any one 

 locality. T. C. Heysham tells us that a young Turtle Dove, 

 killed at Blackwell in September 1832, was the only local 

 specimen he had seen ; he had heard of others, but considered 

 the bird 'of very rare occurrence in this county.' Dr. Gough 

 styled the Turtle a rare, occasional visitant to Westmorland. 

 The Kendal Museum contains a Turtle Dove labelled : ' Killed 

 near Kendal. Presented by Mr. Josh. Leather.' The only 

 other Westmorland example that I have myself seen was killed 

 near Kirkby-Lonsdale in the summer of 1891. I have not 

 seen any specimens obtained in the heart of the Lake district, 

 but Dr. Parker thought that a pair bred near Gosforth. Cer- 

 tainly I saw a fine Turtle Dove at Drigg, on June 5, 1885, and 

 the collection of the late Mr. Borrodale contains a specimen 

 shot near Eskmeals. It occurs occasionally in North-west 

 Cumberland, at Rose, at Wigton, near Kirkbampton ; it nested 

 at Scotby, on the east side of Carlisle, in 1885; it has 

 repeatedly occurred in Barron Wood and other parts of the 

 Eden valley. In 1888 a pair appeared near Little Bampton, 

 and would no doubt have nested, had not one of them been 

 winged and caged. 



