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 (^Columha livia, Brisson.) 
* Columba livia, Rriss. Orn. 1. p. 82. sp. 3. — Lat/i.4nd. Orn. 2. p. 590. sp. 2. var. 
B. — Colombe Biset. Buff. Ois. 2. p. 498. — Ib. pi. Enl. 510. Temtn. Pig.et Gall. 
1. p. 125 J&. edit, fol.pl. 12. — Ib. Man.d’Orn. 2. p. 446. — Haustaube, Bechst. 
Naturg. Deut. 3. p. 971. — Meyer, Tasschenb. 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. 
