stock dove

Wikispecies

• stock-dove
• stockdove

From stock (“tree trunk”) +‎ dove, in reference to the bird's habit of nesting in hollow trees.

stock dove (plural stock doves)

1. A pigeon of species Columba oenas, found in much of Europe, in the family Columbidae.
   • 1785, William Cowper, The Task, Book VI:

     [T]he stock-dove, unalarm'd, / Sits cooing in the pine-tree, nor suspends / His long love-ditty for my near approach.

• stock pigeon