180 Mr. E. BlytVs Drafts for a Fauna Indica. 



and above this band the exterior web of the outermost tail-feather 

 is whitish. Female having the tail barred with narrow rufous 

 cross-lines, like the rest of the upper parts ; and the fore-neck 

 and breast are similarly rayed with alternate dusky and pale buff. 

 The tail-feathers, more especially of the female, have their inner 

 webs rufous at base. Bill black; cere, orbits and legs red. 

 Wings 7^ to 8 inches ; middle tail-feathers the same, the outer- 

 most 4|^ inches. 



The above descriptions are taken from a fine characteristic male 

 and female ; considerable variation of plumage occurring, as many 

 specimens are in different degrees intermediate. This bird in- 

 habits the Eastern Himalaya, and is common at Darjeeling. 



TuRTUR, Selby. (The Turtle-doves.) (G'hooffoOj Bengal ; 

 Fachtah, H. ; Gya, Arracan.) 



Small and delicately formed tree-pigeons, with the tail mode- 

 rately graduated or merely rounded, having always broad gray or 

 grayish-white tips to its graduating outer feathers ; neck devoid 

 of iridescent gloss. They feed chiefly on the ground, upon grain, 

 small pulse and oil-seeds ; assemble in small flocks except when 

 breeding, and generally prefer groves and coppices which inter- 

 sperse the open country, coming much into gardens, where some- 

 times they may be seen nearly as familiar as domestic pigeons. 

 In such situations they breed abundantly, constructing the slight 

 platform-nests common to all arboreal Columbidce ; and in warm 

 climates they have no special season for propagation, but produce 

 alike at all times of the year, the same as domestic pigeons. As 

 compared with the large true wood-pigeons, these birds are cer- 

 tainly much more terrene in their habits*; but they grade to- 

 wards the wood-pigeons in Turtur picturatus {T. Dufresnii) of 

 the Isle of France, which however is a true turtle-dove, having 

 merely a larger bill than its congeners. Their geographical 

 range is confined to the old world, inclusive of Australia, and 

 the only Australian species [T. humeralis) is coloured like the 

 Geopelice ; which last are indeed but a subgenus of the present 

 group, consisting of smaller and more slender-formed species, 

 with delicate rayed plumage, and which are confined in their 

 distribution to the Malay countries and Australiaf. 



* They resemble the generality of more dove-like GourincB (as do also 

 the rock-pigeons) in having the outer toe shorter than the inner, which, 

 accordingly, would indicate a terrene propensity. 



f G. striata (v. Col. sinica, malaccensis, batitamensk, &c.), common in the 

 Malay countries, appears also to inhabit the Mauritius. Living specimens 

 are occasionally brought to Calcutta, where I have kept both it and 7'. /lu- 

 meralis; and being thus familiar with both, 1 do not agree with Messrs. 

 Gould and G. R. Gray in making a Geopelia of the latter. It serves, how- 

 ever, to show the immediate connexion of the two subgroups. 



G. humeralis agrees with G. striata in having the first primary suddenly 



