Many authors have regarded this as the same species as the Rock Dove, or as having but trifling differences. Yarrell, however, considers them to be perfectly distinct, both as to habits, voice, plumage, and the localities which they frequent. "The Stock Dove," says this accurate author, "was called _œnas_[A] on account of the vinous claret-colour of the plumage of the neck; and Stock Dove, not because it was by some considered to be the origin of our domestic stock, but because it builds in the stocks of trees, particularly such as have been headed down, and have become in consequence rugged and bushy at the top." In more open parts of the country, holes in the ground are selected as breeding-places, especially the burrows of rabbits. When the warreners find the young in a burrow, they fix sticks at the mouth of the hole in such a manner as to prevent the escape of the young, but so as to allow the old birds to feed them. Bishop Stanley refers to this bird's habit of building in holes as illustrative of a passage in Scripture. He says; "In the Eastern countries and the Holy Land, the Wild Pigeons almost invariably prefer such situations to trees, thus confirming the words of the prophet, who speaks of the 'dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth' (Jer. xlviii. 28)." When the eggs are laid in this manner in deserted burrows, they are either placed on the bare sand or upon a few dried roots, about a yard within the entrance. The Stock Dove also nestles under furze bushes, or in the holes of decayed trees. The eggs are two in number, oval and white, and are laid about the end of March or beginning of April. The food of the Stock Dove is similar to that of the last-mentioned species.