98 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
have been misled by another appellation, often given to the 
wood-pigeon, which is that of stock-dove. 
Unless the stock-dove in the winter varies greatly in manners 
from itself in summer, no species seems more unlikely to be 
domesticated, and to make a house-dove. We very rarely see 
the latter settle on trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the 
woods ; but the former as long as it stays with us—from 
November perhaps to February— lives the same wild life with 
the ring-dove ; frequents coppices and groves, supports itself 
chiefly by mast, and delights to roost in the tallest beeches. 
Could it be known in what manner stock-doves build, the 
doubt would be settled with me at once, provided they con- 
struct their nests on trees, like the ring-dove, as I much 
suspect they do. . 
You received, you say, last spring a stock-dove from Sussex ; 
and are informed that they sometimes breed in that county. 
But why did not your correspondent determine the place of its 
nidification, whether on rocks, cliffs, or trees? If he was not 
an adroit ornithologist I should doubt the fact, because people 
with us perpetually confound the stock-dove with the ring- 
dove. 
For my own part, I readily concur with you in supposing 
that house-doves are derived from the small blue rock-pigeon, 
for many reasons. In the first place the wild stock-dove is 
manifestly larger than the common house-dove, against the 
usual rule of domestication, which generally enlarges the breed. 
Again, those two remarkable black spots on the remiges of 
each wing of the stock-dove, which are so characteristic of 
the species, would not, one should think, be totally lost by its 
being reclaimed ; but would often break out among its descend- 
ants. But what is worth a hundred arguments is the instance 
you give in Sir Roger Mostyn’s house-doves in Czernarvonshire; 
which, though tempted by plenty of food and gentle treatment, 
can never be prevailed on to inhabit their cote for any time ; 
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