STOCK DOVE 
235 
the greater or smaller need for this kind of pro- 
tection, according to the particular character of the 
nesting-place. 
STOCK DOVE. 
{Columha oenas.) 
The Stock Dove, like the Ring Dove, has 
increased a great deal in numbers of recent 
years, and is now found in most country- 
neighbourhoods, though it is still rather local in 
its distribution. It can be plainly distinguished 
from the Ring Dove by its distinctly smaller 
size, and the absence of any white upon its wings 
in flight ; while at close quarters it is seen that 
the Ring Dove's white patches upon the neck are 
replaced by similar markings of glossy, metallic 
green. There are other differences in the plumage, 
but these points are most useful for distinction. 
The Stock Dove has much the same varied vege- 
table diet as its relative, but it eats a smaller 
proportion of the farmer's cultivated crops, and more 
noxious weed seeds, and wild beech-mast. It also 
eats small snails. It begins to breed early in spring, 
the eggs being often laid by the beginning of April, 
and, like the Ring Dove, it occasionally has young 
broods even up to the autumn. I have found un- 
fledged Stock Doves in August in the same hole 
