Forms: see STOCK sb.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 ænas.
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.
