The Natural History of Selborne

The wood-pigeon, or stock-dove begins to appear.  they leave us all to a bird in the spring, & do not breed in these parts; perhaps not in this island.  If they are birds of passage, they are the last winter bird of passage that appears.  The numbers that come to these parts are strangely diminished within these twenty years.  For about that distance of time such multitudes used to be observed, as they went to & from roost, that they filled the air for a mile together: but now seldom are more than 40 or 50 anywhere to be seen.  They feed on acorns, beech mast, & turneps.  They are much smaller than the ring-dove, which stays with us all the year.