246 
Allen’s naturalist’s library. 
it is spreading in Ireland. “It breeds,” he says, “in Antrim, 
Down, Armagh, Louth, and AVicklow, and doubtless also in 
King’s and Queen’s Counties, where it is reported to be seen 
more or less frequently ; also recently in Carlow, though for- 
merly unknown there. Still scarce and local. 
Range outside the British Islands. — The Stock-Dove inhabits 
the whole of the Western Palaearctic Region, and e.xtends 
eastward to Turkestan and Northern Afghanistan and Lob- 
Noor. In Scandinavia and Russia it breeds up to about 
6o°or6i°N. Lat. 
Habits. — The Stock-Dove has somewhat different habits from 
those of the AVood-Pigeon. It is seldom found in flocks, like 
the latter bird, and more often is met with singly. I have 
often flushed the Stock-Dove from the dense thickets of small 
branches which grow at the foot of ancient lime-trees, and 
becoriie choked with dead leaves ; but I never could discover 
that it ivas nesting in these situations, though the cover was 
dense enough to afford it the shelter which the bird loves, and 
there was probably some hole in the tree itself which I failed 
to discover. In old elm-trees covered with ivy I have often 
found it nesting, and seeking the same kind of hole as the 
Jackdaws, which also nested, in the proportion of six to one of 
the Stock-Doves, in the same cluster of hoary elms. Like the 
AVood-Pigeon, the Stock-Dove resorts to some favourite and 
retired clump to roost; but whereas the former bird often 
selects a dense grove of yews or fir-trees on some island in a 
lake, I have never found the Stock-Doves resorting to such 
haunts. Above the old yew-avenue in Avington Park are 
many elm and ash trees, and to these the Stock-Doves used 
to resort as evening closed in, and I have procured several 
specimens for the British Museum by waiting for them in the 
twilight, when they used to flock into the high trees, doubtless 
intending to descend later on to roost in the shade of the great 
yews. The food of the Stock- Dove is very similar to that of 
the Wood-Pigeon, but I have never known the latter bird to 
show any preference for mustard-seed, whereas the Stock- Dove 
and the Turtle-Dove do great damage to the mustard-fields 
when the seed is ripe. In winter the Stock-Dove often mixes 
with the flocks of AVood- Pigeons. 
