wood pigeon

[Eng. wood (1), s., and pigeon.] Ornithology: 1. Columbarlumbus a well-known bird distributed general. over urope. Length about seventeen or eighteen inches, head, chin, and part of neck blue-gray, rest of neck and breast purple-red; bare skin at base of bill nearly white; feathers on side of neck tipped with white so as to form portions of oblique rings; upper parts and wings slaty aty bluish-gray; plumage of hen le brilliant. Varieties more or le spotted with white often occur, and perfect albinos are sometimes met with. The food of the Wood pigeon consists of corn and grain, beechmast, peas, tares, acorns, the young shoots of turnip-tops, and spring-sown corn; and, as these birds make no return to the farmer by destroying his insect foes, their rapid increase is a source of grave anxiety to agriculturists. The nest of the Wood pigeon is a mere platform of loose sticks, so carele ly constructed that eggs and young birds are often blown therefrom and destroyed. The eggs are always two in number, white and oval; two and sometimes three broods are produced in the year. The ordinary flight is very strong and rapid, and, if disturbed, the bird springs into the air with a peculiar flapping of the wings, which may be heard at a considerable distance. 2. Columba œnas . "As to the wild wood pigeon , the Enas, or Vinago, of Ray, I am much of your mind; and see no reason for making it the origin of the common house dove; but suppose those that have advanced that opinion may have been misled by another appellation often given to the Enas , which is that of stock-dove."-White: Selborne, lett. xliv. (To Pennant.)