Stock"dove` (?), n. Zool.
A common European wild pigeon (Columba aenas), so called because at one time believed to be the stock of the domestic pigeon, or, according to some, from its breeding in the stocks, or trunks, of trees.
⇒ The name is applied, also, to other related species, as the Indian stockdove (Palumbaena Eversmanni).
© Webster 1913.