ˈstock-dove
Forms: see stock n.1 and dove. Also 4–6 -dowe, 5 -dowef.
[Cf. Flem. † stockduive (Kilian), G. stocktaube (= holztaube, hohltaube). Prob. so named as living in hollow trees.
The conjecture that the name was given because this kind of pigeon was supposed to be the ‘stock’ or ancestral form of the domestic pigeon is unlikely.]
The wild pigeon, Columba œnas.
| c 1340 Nominale (Skeat) 804 Coloumbe ramer et vanele Stokdowe and lapwynge. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 640/3 Hic palumbus, stokedowef. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 476/2 Stokke Dowe, palumba, palumbes. c 1530 in Archæologia XXV. 498 To Osbert Reds sone, for bryngyng of stockdowes, ijd. 1584 Lyly Sappho iv. iii. 3 Me thought I saw a Stockdoue or woodquist, I knowe not how to tearme it. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. i. 77 Stock-Doves and Turtles tell their am'rous pain. 1766 Pennant Brit. Zool. I. 391 Rock-Pigeons have been often seen mixed with the flights of Stock Doves. 1867 Tegetmeier Pigeons 13 The Stock Dove usually breeds in the hollows of decayed trees, sometimes in deserted rabbit burrows. 1895 Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. IV. 371 The stock-dove..often confused with the rock-dove, which it resembles in size and general colour, although distinguished by having the rump grey instead of white. |