183 Mr. E. Blyth's Drafts for a Fauna Indka, 



of T. erythrophrys is evidently faulty in the colouring ; but he 

 speaks of " the belly^ flanks, vent and under tail-coverts ^' as 

 " clear cinereous/' which should distinguish it from T. vinaceus, 

 while its ^' hroad black semi-collar, margined by a narrow cine- 

 reous line/^ instead of a slight grayish-white one, should equally 

 separate it from T. risorius; again, "the orbits are naked and 

 rich red,^^ which applies to neither of them : his T. erythrophrys 

 has the wing 7 inches, and his T. semitorquatus only 5 J inches, 

 both the Indian and South African species being in this respect 

 intermediate. T. semitorquatus has, further, "the belly, vent, 

 thighs and under tail- coverts cinereous-white," which agrees 

 sufficiently with some specimens, apparently females, of T. vina- 

 ceus, the (presumed) males having at least the abdomen scarcely 

 paler than the breast; but, "above all, the inner toe is one- 

 twentieth of an inch lonffer than the outer," whilst " in erythro- 

 phrys this proportion is almost reversed, or at least the inner toe 

 is not even equal to the outer." In both the Indian and South 

 African birds the inner toe is shorter than the outer*. 



Besides the common cream-coloured domestic race, a small 

 albino variety is frequently bred in cages, in different parts of 

 India, with wing measuring 5^ to 6 inches; but its form of tail 

 and other proportions are as in T, risorius and T. vinaceus. This 

 bird is often interbred with the cream-coloured race, producing 

 offspring of intermediate size and shade of colouring f. The coo 

 of T. risorius somewhat resembles the sound cuckoo, pronounced 

 slowly and with a pause between the syllables, the second being 

 much prolonged and at first rolled. It may not unfrequently be 

 heard in moonlight nights. 



T. HUMiLis : Col. humilisj Temminck : Asiatic Pigeon, Latham. 

 {Serotee Fachtah, Hind. ; Golabee, or rose-coloured, G^hoogoo, 

 Tdmdkhuree, or copper-cup, and PtkHiyd, or brick-coloured— 

 Dove, Beng. ; Goodko, G^hoogoo'i i. e. Dove, Scinde; Gyo-^ 

 leng-hya, Arracan.) (Red Turtle-dove.) Much smaller and 

 of a less elongated form than the last ; general colour fine 



* Notwithstahding these apparent inconsistencies, 1 have no douht that 

 erythrophrys = risorius, ^nd semitorquatus, Sw. = vinaceus. 'J'he breadth 

 of the nuchal collar, and even the apparent nakedness of the orbits, greatly 

 depend on the stretching of the skin in preparing the specimen. I haVe an 

 Indian specimen of risorius which exhibits a wide ring of bare skin round 

 the eyes, solely from their being filled with too much cotton. In this spe- 

 cimen the wing measures 7 inches, as in the description of erythrophrys. 

 My specimens oi vinac^a from South Africa have the inner toe (including 

 the claw) conspicuously longer than the outer, as is stated of semitorquatus. 



N.B. The Turtur semitorquatus of Rlippell is a distinct species, much like 

 risorius^ but larger and otherwise different. — H. E. S. 



t The " Jungle Pigeon " of Latham would seem to be merely a domestic 

 variety of this kind. 



