_Columba Ênas_ is the scientific name of this species. The first term, as you are aware, means simply a Dove, the etymology of the second is not so clear, most likely it comes from _oinos_--relating to wine, and alludes to the ruddy or vinous tinge of the breast. This is a somewhat stouter bird in the body than the last, and it wants the white patches which so vary and enliven the plumage of the Ring Dove, than which it is less elegant, although perhaps its plumage is more rich and splendid, with that shifting play of golden green and violet which all the Doves, and some other of the feathered tribes present. But for this, the plumage of our Stock Dove, (so called, it is said, because it is the original stock from which our common domestic Pigeons are derived,) would be considered plain and dull; it is chiefly greyish blue, deepening at parts into purple, and flushed here and there with deep red; the legs of this, as of most Doves and Pigeons, are light red, and the bill light brown or yellowish. "The Stock Dove builds in the old oak wood," says Mary Howitt, in her beautiful song of the Pheasant, and so no doubt it often does; but more frequently, perhaps, in the fir plantation, or among the beeches, or any other trees that present a suitable nesting-place; a hole in the trunk is frequently chosen, it may be only four or five, or as many as forty or fifty feet from the ground. Sometimes the flat and shallow nest, just a few sticks loosely put together, is placed on the ground itself, in a deserted rabbit-burrow, or some other hollow place; beneath furze bushes it is occasionally found, and even in hedges and fruit trees near to woods and coppices. Nidification commences about the end of March or beginning of April; incubation lasts about seventeen days, and in a month from the time of hatching the young are ready to fly. There are two or three broods in the year. The eggs are white, somewhat smaller than those of the Ring Dove, and more pointed at the smaller end. The parent birds sit very close, and will even allow themselves to be taken off by the hand; they evince great attachment for their young, as well for each other, and although several pairs may build within a very limited space, they do not appear to quarrel; indeed gentleness and tenderness is the main characteristic of all their motions, as well as of their soft notes, the old familiar _coo, coo, coo_. In winter they consort with the Ring Doves, but are not perhaps so numerous in this country as these birds. They migrate from place to place, and feed on hemp, rape, and other seeds, young shoots of plants, berries, beech-mast, acorns, and grain. ROCK DOVE. WHITE-BACKED DOVE. WILD, OR ROCK PIGEON. FIGURE 22.