46 
XATURE XOTES 
the ivy on the walls of our house, or to the starlings on the roof, 
to be convinced of this. We call their language by various 
names, and look on it as a song, a chirp, a twitter and the like ; 
and suppose it to consist principally of senseless chatter, because 
we know so little of its meaning. But somehow or other, a vast 
amount of learning and instruction is compressed into a short 
space of time, and at the end of two months a bird’s education 
is sufficiently advanced for it to shift for itself, and to battle its 
way in the vicissitudes of a wandering and eventful life. 
Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
ABOUT STOCK DOVES. 
ER Y Londoner knows the bulky form and waddling 
gait of the Wood Pigeon, once regarded as essentially 
a denizen of the woods and fields, though now a fami- 
liar object in many of the by-ways and open spaces of 
the great metropolis ; but few, probably, can claim acquaintance 
with the beautiful little bird, likewise a native of these shores, 
that forms one of the small groups of British pigeons, and is 
known to naturalists as the Stock Dove. 
With the exception of the English Turtle, it is the smallest 
of the four varieties found in a feral state in these Islands, and 
is, by nature, active and shy. By many, even at the present day, 
it is confounded with the Rock Dove, to which bird, indeed, it 
bears at first view some slight resemblance, principally owing 
to the fact that its body-colour is somewhat similar, and that the 
black bands of the wings are present, though in a modified form. 
These markings in the Columha oenas, by which name the Stock 
Dove is known to scientists, consist in reality of spots, and do 
not form a continuous band, as in the case of the Rock Dove. 
In both birds the plumage is bluish-grey, varying in intensity at 
different points, but beyond this the two have little in common. 
Formerly the Stock Dove was regarded as the progenitor 
of all the domestic races of pigeons, not, it must be admitted, 
without some apparent reason, for what is more plausible than 
to connect the specific name of the species with the “ stock ” or 
“stem” of the cultivated breeds? More recent research has, 
however, laid the matter conclusively at rest, and the Rock 
Dove {Columha livia) is now universally recognised as the origi- 
nator of common and fancy pigeons the world over. We find 
the species variously distributed in England, but it is more 
frequently met with in the Midland and Southern counties. 
W’hen at large the Stock Dove frequents woods and copses, 
often congening with the Wood Pigeon and, like that bird, it 
feeds chiefly upon beech-mast, pulse, small grain and acorns. 
For nesting purposes, holes in stumps and trees are utilised — - 
where such are available, but not infrequently the pigeons will 
