190 NATURAL HISTORY 



that they sometimes breed in that county. 

 But why did not your correspondent de- 

 termine the place of its nidification, whe- 

 ther on rocks, cliffs, or trees ? If he was 

 not an adroit ornithologist I should doubt 

 the fact, because people with us perpe- 

 tually confound the stock-dove with the 

 ring'dove. 



For my own part, I readily concur with 

 you in supposing that house-doves are 

 derived from the small blue rock-pigeon, for 

 many reasons. In the first place the wild 

 stock-dove is manifestly larger than the 

 common house-dove, against the usual rule 

 of domestication, which generally enlarges 

 the breed. Again, those two remarkable 

 black spots on the remiges of each wing of 

 the stock-dove, which are so characteristic 

 of the species, would not, one should 

 think, be totally lost by its being re- 

 claimed ; but would often break out among 

 its descendants. But what is worth an 

 hundred arguments is, the instance you 

 give in Sir Roger Most^ns house-doves in 

 Caernarvonshire ; which, though tempted by 



