week I submitted it to the inspection of Mr. Tegetmeier, an authority respecting Pigeons, who decided that 
it was undouhtedly a Stock-Dove, and added that the fact of this species resorting to cliffs to breed, not 
accidentally, hut in small numbers, w'as interesting and hitherto unknown.” 
“ Although far less numerous, and more locally distributed than the Ring-Dove,” says Mr. Stevenson in 
his ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ “ the Stock-Dove is plentiful at certain times of the year aiid in certain parts of the 
country, particularly the north-eastern and south-western districts. In the latter, with the exception of 
about four months (from the middle of September to the middle of January, or even later if the winter 
be much prolonged), it is found, if not in great abundance, yet in sufficient numbers to he one of the most 
characteristic birds of that part of that open country. During the latter part of the autumn and beginning 
of winter, though not, perhaps, absolutely absent, yet it only occasionally appears, and then generally flocked 
with Ring-Doves. That accurate naturalist, the late Mr. Salmon, states that the Stock-Dove, which in 
all ‘ works upon natural history is stated to be only an inhabitant of woods, abounds in this neighbourhood 
during the spring and summer months, upon our rabbit-warrens and heaths, to which it annually resorts 
for the purpose of nidification, and it is in general the first that arrives in the district for that purpose. 
The situation which it selects for its nest differs materially from that chosen by its congeners, the Ring- 
and Turtle Doves, the nests of which are always placed upon trees or bushes ; this species, on the contrary, 
occupies the deserted rabbit-burrows upon warrens, and places its pair of eggs about a yard from the 
entrance, generally upon the hare sand, sometimes using a small quantity of dried roots, See., barely suffi- 
cient to keep the eggs from the ground. Besides such situations, on the heaths it nestles under the thick 
furze bushes {Ulex europced), which are impervious to rain, in consequence of the sheep and rabbits eating 
off the young and tender shoots as they grow, always preferring those bushes that have a small opening 
made by the rabbits near the ground. A few pairs occasionally breed in the holes of decayed trees. It 
generally commences breeding by the end of March, or the beginning of April, the young ones, which are 
very much esteemed, being ready for the table by the commencement of June.” Mr. Alfred Newton tells 
me that the young Stock-Doves, being a perquisite of the warreners, are a source of not inconsiderable 
profit, as they sell them for from eighteen pence to two shillings a couple, and that almost every warrener 
keeps a “ dow-dawg,” i. e. a dog regularly trained to discover the burrows in which the doves 
breed. Mr. Scales, of Beechamwells, adds that “ when the warreners find them in a burrow, they 
fix sticks at the mouth of the hole in such a manner as to prevent the escape of the young, but to 
allow the old birds to feed them.” Mr. Newton, however, informs me that this precaution is thought 
unnecessary ; for the more experienced warreners, from long practice, know to a day (after once seeing 
the nestlings) when they will be fit to take. Along the extensive range of sandliills in the neighbourhood of 
Hunstanton also, the Stock-Doves may be found breeding in considerable numbers, and likewise on Holt 
Heath and other similar localities; indeed I have no doubt that with careful observation a few pairs might 
be found in summer in many rough furze-covered spots where rabbits are preserved ; but this peculiarity in 
the habits of the Stock-Dove is by no means generally known. In 1863, a friend of mine, whilst ferreting 
on Mr. George’s farm, at Eaton, near Norwich, was not a little surprised at seeing a pigeon flutter out of a 
rabbit’s hole (half hidden by thick gorse, in the steep side of a sandpit) into which he had just previously 
turned his ferret : the bird was caught by a terrier before it could take flight, and proved to be an old 
Stock-Dove ; but on a subsequent examination of the burrow no eggs or young were found. I may add that 
in that neighbourhood the bird is by no means common. This species, however, in certain districts, also 
breeds in our woods and plantations with the common Ring-Dove, but in such situations it nests either in 
the holes of old trees, using only a few sticks by way of lining, in the stocks of old oak-pollards (from which 
circumstance, according to Yarrell, it has acquired the name of Stock-Dove), or, as my friend Mr. Edwards 
informs me, in any faggot-stacks left in the plantations for the summer, the nest being generally placed at 
the bottom should sufficient space remain for the purpose. Mr. Newton has also found a pair of eggs of 
this bird at Elveden, near Thetford, “ laid on a very thick bushy bough of a Scotch fir tree, about twelve 
feet from the ground, without any nest.” Mr. Samuel Bligh, who has studied the habits of this species 
during the breeding-season at Framingham Earl, says that their actions are occasionally anything but doce- 
like, as they fight most desperately, till one or both fall to the ground. He has shot them in the very act.” 
The sexes are very similar in outward appearance ; hut the female is rather smaller than the male, and is a 
trifle less brilliant in colour, particularly in the glossy hues of the green and purple metallic tints which 
adorn the sides of the neck. 
The eggs are white, oblong in form, and very similar to those of the common Ring-Dove. 
I’he Plate represents a male and the head of a female, of the size of life. 
