Could it be known
in what manner stock-doves build, the doubt would be settled with
me at once, provided they construct 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, these
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 descendants.
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