In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 



161 



on the neck and the white bar on the wing. It leaves us in the 

 depth of winter, returning early in the spring. One of these birds 

 was well nigh the origin of my present collection, for on shooting 

 one out of a large flock of a hundred or more, in the middle of 

 February, in our water meadows, the beautiful gloss on the neck so 

 captivated my fancy that I could not help having it preserved, and 

 I have gone on collecting ever since. I generally have two pairs of 

 these birds breeding annually in the vicarage garden, choosing for 

 their nesting place the thick ivy that covers some very large and 

 fine poplar stems. One of these pairs had certainly three, if not 

 four, broods during the same season, though from certain untoward 

 circumstances only two of the broods came to maturity. These 

 birds are often called, about here, Blue Rocks, which name is more 

 properly applied to their first cousin, the Rock Dove ; while their 

 general name Stock Dove is also more or less a misnomer, having 

 been given to them from a common but mistaken idea that they 

 were the original source from which our tame Pigeons were des- 

 cended ; whereas the Rock Dove is undoubtedly their progenitor ; 

 this species being a truly wild bird, and never mating with any 

 other kind than its own. Neither can you derive its name duly from 

 the kind of places it often chooses for nesting purposes, i.e., the 

 stocks, or bolls of trees, for where such resorts are not at hand, it is 

 in no way dependent on them, but commonly breeds in the mouths o£ 

 deserted rabbit burrows, or under some thick furze bush on the ground. 



It is a quick lively bird in its motions ; clapping its wings to- 

 gether smartly once or twice when it takes its flight, and doing the 

 same when it alights. This bird is a very close sitter, allowing 

 itself at times to be almost lifted from its eggs ; and uttering during 

 the breeding season a rumbling grunting kind of coo, quite different 

 from its congener, the Woodpigeon. Common as it is about here, 

 it would seem to be a bird much overlooked, and unnoticed by many 

 people. 



Columba Livia. "The Rock Dove/'' This is the true parent of our 

 tame Pigeons, at once to be distinguished from the last-named species 

 by the patch of white on the upper tail coverts, and the two com- 

 pleted dark bars across the wing. I have never noticed this bird 



