COLDMBIDÆ.
GOLÜMBÆ. OOIUMBIDÆ.
" 'T J olumba ceS a s , Linnaeus *.
THE STOCK DOVE.
cMas.
By Montagu, Bewick, Fleming, and: tjie earlier
authors, the Stqck ,JQpy& confounded wi|h the Bock Dove,
from whifih- however, tsinbow well known To he perfectly
distinct.' Whilst thjis confusion.t las\ed,>|e name was supposed
to be owing to its being considered tobe the origin of
our domestic stock ; but the ^appellation^ is now generally
attribu^J^lts^hajukof "nesting in the s tocks t ree s , Ear‘
Linnseus, Syst. Nat. Ed., 1 2 t P- pari,*tJio
dcs-uiption being bomewbat^onfu^ed ■with that o£ tjbjs I)onustic Pigeon, altjiough
in the Fauna Suecica, p. 75 (1761), the'author had accurately described, file
present species. As the name has -beenMong and almost universally applied' to
this bird, -.there ^eenis to be no adequate reason f^.rejeeting'at.- GUnas from
oIpos, vinum. -
ticularly such as have héén headed down, and have become
rugged and bushy at the top. Its German name Bôhltàube,
or Hole-Dove, is similarly owing to the predilection for
hollow trees. In fact, the peculiar nesting habits Of this
Dove are amongst its principal characteristics. In wooded
countries it generally Sélects elms, oaks, and willows-**
especially pollards—and the hollows of beeches : frequently
making no nest but depositing its eggs- upon the rotten
wood which has accumulated ; it also makes use of old
Crows’ and Magpies’ nests and squirrels’ dreys, the matted
boughs df the Scotch fir, and ivy-grown trees and ruins.
In such situations as the foregoing its eggs may be found
even so near to London as Bichmond, Windsor, and
Cashiobury Parks, and generally throughout the wooded
southern counties of England. But in the open districts—
Norfolk and Suffolk—it ôècupies the deserted rabbit-burrows
upon warrens; placing its-eggs about a yard from the:
entrance, generally upon the bare sand, sometimes using a
small quantity of dried roots, -&c., barély ‘sufficient to keep'
the eggs from the ground. Besides such situations on the
heath, it nestles under thick furze bushes which are impervious
to rain in consequence of the sheep and rabbits eating
off the young and tender shoots as they grow ; the birds
always preferring those bushes that have a small Opening
made by the rabbits near the ground.* The young, which
are ready for the tablé early in June, are stated by Professor
Newton to be a sotifee of'considerable profit to the warreners,
whose perquisites’’they are ; and in consequence almost every
warrener keeps a “ dowe-dawg/’ Ire.;' a dog trained to
discover the burrows in which the Doves breed, f They
also breed in the rabbit-burrows of the Lincolnshire coast
and of Walney Island, Lancashire. But the irestihg peculiarities
of the Stock-Dove do not end here. Mr. Harting-
(Zoologist, 1867, p. 758) relates how a paifrbMcff for several
seasons on a crossbeam iîL the old spire of Kingsbury
Church, and the young birds', which he took and reared,
* J. D. Salmon, Loudoû’é Mag. Nat. H: t, v
f Stevenson, Birds of Norfolk, i.-:p.; 35'6.
VOL. III.