ROCK DOVE. 



425 



RING-TAILED EAGLE.— The Golden Eagle in the second year's 

 plumage ; long- considered by naturalists as a distinct species. 

 RIPPOCK. — A name for the Tern. 

 ROCK DOVE {Columba livia, Brisson.) 



* Columba livia, Briss. Orn. 1. p. 82. sp. 3. — Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 590. sp. 2. var. 

 B. — Colombe Biset. Buff. Ois. 2. p. 498.— Ib. pi. Enl. 510. Temm. Pig.et Gall. 



1. p. 125 Ib. edit. fol. pi. 12.— Ib. Man.d'Orn. 2. p. 446.— Haustaube, Bechst. 



Naturg. Deut. 3. p. 971.— Meyer, Tasscbenb. Deut. 1. p. 288.— Biset, and 

 White-rumped Pigeon, Lath. Syn. 4. p. 605. 2. A — Rock Dove, Mont. Orn. 

 Diet.— lb. Supp.— The Wild Pigeon, Bewick's Br. Birds, 1. p. t. 267.— The 

 Common Pigeon, or Wild Dove, Low's Faun. Oread, p. 52. — Selby, pi. 56 *. 

 fig. 2. p. 292. 



Provincial. — Rockier.* 



Ornithologists seem to differ in opinion concerning- the rock and 

 stock pigeon ; though it appears almost impossible to conceive them a 

 distinct species. In those described under such names there seems to be 

 so much similitude, except what may be expected from a species half 

 reclaimed, and frequently returning- to their natural wild habits again, 

 that we cannot but consider them as one and the same species. 



The Rock Dove is considered to be the origin of our tame pigeons, 

 as it is said to possess the white on the lower part of the back, in which 

 part the stock dove is described to be ash-coloured, and that this last 

 is rather larger. But these variations we have observed in pigeons 

 killed in their native haunts amongst the rocks on our coasts ; and our 

 dove-cote pigeons frequently have no white on the back. It is there- 

 fore probable many of our common species, after having been bred in a 

 pigeon-house contiguous to such rocky situations, return to their na- 

 tural habits, and there produce some variation in colour. 



The bird now before us we killed on the cliffs in Cauldy Island, in 

 South Wales. It weighed eleven ounces ; length thirteen inches and 

 a half ; breadth twenty-two ; the bill is brown, inclining to purplish- 

 red ; point dusky ; irides light-yellow ; the head dark bluish ash-colour ; 

 neck and breast glossed with green and copper, as viewed in different 

 lights, most conspicuous on the sides and back of the neck ; the upper 

 part of the back and wing coverts pale ash-colour ; across the middle 

 of the greater coverts is a broad band of black, and another of the 

 same on the ends of the secondary quills, running into each other on 

 those feathers nearest the body ; the greater quills are dusky, dashed 

 with ash-colour, the outer ones darkest, and all of them most so towards 

 the tips, slightly edged on their exterior webs with white ; the lower 

 part of the back white ; the rump and tail dark bluish ash-colour, the 

 ends of the latter black ; the two exterior feathers whitish on the outer 

 webs towards the base ; the sides under the wings, and under wing 

 coverts, white ; the belly bluish ash-colour ; legs red. 



