week I submitted it to the inspection of Mr. Tegetmeier, an authority respecting Pigeons, who decided that
it was undoubtedly a Stock-Dove, and added that the fact of this species resorting to cliffs to breed, not
accidentally, but in small numbers, was interesting and hitherto unknown.”
“ Although far less numerous, and more locally distributed than the Ring-Dove,” says Mr. Stevenson in
his ‘ Birds o f Norfolk,’ “ the Stock-Dove is plentiful a t certain times o f the year and in certain parts o f the
country, particularly the north-eastern and south-western districts. In the latter, with the exception of
about four months (from the middle o f 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 be one o f the most
characteristic birds of that part o f that open country. During the latter p art 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 o f woods, abounds in this neighbourhood
during the spring and summer months, uponMjur rabbit-warrens and heaths, to which it annually resorts
for the purpose of nidificatioti, 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, tlie nests o f 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 bare sand, sometimes using a small quantity of d ried roots, &c., barely sufficient
to keep the eggs from the ground. Besides such situations, on the heaths it nestles under the thick
furze bushes ( Ulex europaea), which are impervious to rain ¿ in consequence o f the sheep and rabbits eating
off the young and tender shoots as they grow, always preferring those bushes that have a small opening
ni'ade by the rabbits near the ground. A few pairs occasionally breed in the holes o f decayed trees. It
generally commences breeding by the end o f March, or the beginning of April, the young ones, which are
very much esteemed, being ready for the table by the commencement o f June.” Mr. Alfred Newton tells
me that the young Stock-Doves, being a perquisite of the warreners, are a source o f not inconsiderable
profit, as they sell them for from eighteen pence to two shillings a couple, and th at almost every warrener
keeps a “ dow-dawg,” i. e. a dog regularly trained to discover the burrows in which the doves
breed. Mr. Scales, o f Beecham wells, 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 o f the young, but to
allow the old b irds. 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
th e nestlings) when they will be fit to take. Along the extensive range o f sandhills in the neighbourhood of
Hunstanton also, the Stock-Doves may be fdiind breeding in considerable numbers, and likewise on Holt
Heath and other similar localities; indeed I have no doubt that with careful observation a lew 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 o f mine, whilst ferretin°-
on Mr. George’s farm, at Eaton, near Norwich, was not a little surprised a t seeing a pigeon flutter out o f a
rabbit’s hole (half hidden by thick gorse, in the steep side of a sandpit) into which he had ju st previously
turned his f e r r e t: the bird was caught by a&terrier before it could fake flight, and proved to be an old
Stock-Dove; but on a subsequent examination o f the burrow no eggs o r young werefound. 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 o f lining, in the stocks of old oak-pollards (from which
circumstance, according to Yarrell, it has acquired the name o f 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 o f eggs of
this bird a t Elveden, near Thetford, “ laid on a very thick bushy bough o f 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 dove-
like, as they fight most desperately, till one or both fall to the ground. He has shot them in the very act.”
T he sexes are very similar in outward appearance; but the female is rather smaller than the male, and is a
trifle less brilliant in colour, particularly in the glossy hues o f the green and purple metallic tints which,
fadorn the sides o f the neck.
The eggs are white, oblong in form, and very similar to those o f the common Ring-Dove.
The Plate represents a male and the head o f a female, o f the size o f life.