l8o RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST, 



125. Palm Dove, Turtur senegaknsis (Linn.); 

 " Gumri." 



It is hard to say where the Palm Dove is not found, so 

 universally is it spread through the length and breadth of 

 Egypt It will probably be the first bird which the observer 

 meets with when he sets foot on the quay of Alexandria, 

 perhaps cooing on some stucco cornice, perhaps fluttering 

 among the boats in the harbour. The only part where we 

 did not find it was the northern portion of the Damietta 

 branch, and there for more than three weeks it certainly 

 was conspicuous for its absence. These Doves frequent the 

 Palm, Acacia, Nabuk, and every other kind of tree that is 

 known to grow in Egypt, and practise their love-arts in the 

 green foliage. By night they roost in hundreds in some 

 Orange trees at a village near Benisouef, and a grove of 

 dwarf Palms is often a favourite place. In towns and 

 villages there are always a good many ; whether consisting 

 of the rickety tenements of the natives, or the modern inno- 

 vation of lath and plaster, is all the same to the confiding 

 Palm Dove. I saw some flying about the inside of a large 

 sugar manufactory, where they appeared quite at home. I 

 have often heard of their coming into rooms, and on one 

 occasion one came into the cabin of our Diabeyha, and 

 another day a pair settled on the awning ; but it must be 

 understood that they are not in any sense domesticated. Of 

 their own free will they affect the society of man, and he 

 protects them. 



The immature Palm Dove is brown, and so unlike its 

 parents that it might be taken for a different species. There 

 is also an extraordinary amount of variation in the adults, 

 a circumstance to which my attention was particularly 

 drawn by shooting a very light yellowish female on the 

 1 2th of March. The differences lie especially in the tints 



