INDIAN RUFOUS TURTLE-DOVE 193 



Although the bird is, as I have said above, a resident form over 

 the whole of its breeding-area, they appear to wander considerably 

 further afield during the winter, more especially in the extreme west. 

 These local migrations are probably due to the migratory instinct 

 inherited from the parent stock being still not quite exhausted. The 

 original bird, probably Streptopelia t. turtur, the European Turtle-Dove, 

 from which all our Indian subspecies are descended, must have been a 

 migratory bird, breeding possibly in the far north and migrating, more 

 or less, over the whole of India during the winter. In time a few birds 

 remained behind in the lower hills of the Himalayas and developed 

 into om* ferrago, the Indian Turtle-Dove, which has greatly restricted 

 its migrations, and now goes no further north than the Himalayas to 

 breed. Next, yet other birds settled m the plains of India, and from 

 these has come the non-migratory form meewa, Sykes's Turtle-Dove. 

 In the hills of Nepal and eastwards, yet another set of birds settled 

 down and developed the small changes in plumage which constitute 

 the subspecies orientalis. 



It is, therefore, probable that on the western coasts this bird is 

 only a visitor in the cold-weather months, during which fewer birds 

 are breeding. 



It is a very sociable bird and is often seen consorting in large 

 numbers when feeding in rice and wheat fields, etc., and some writers 

 consider it actually gregarious. Thus Jerdon says it is often seen in 

 large flocks, and Blewitt writes that his experience leads him to suppose 

 " that this species congregates in flocks after the breeding-season." 

 Personally, I have never seen a flock of these Doves, either in the plains 

 or hills, for though many have often been together in the same field, 

 their actions, except in pairs, have always seemed to me quite independent 

 of the rest of the birds. When they are disturbed they fly off in pairs 

 or singly, and in all directions — some only to the nearest tree, others to 

 a considerable distance, and some quite out of sight. 



They are often found in very great numbers picking up the fallen 

 rice after the fields have been cut and, shocking as it may appear to 

 shoot Doves, they really give one many an afternoon's very pretty 

 sport, and shooting quite difficult enough to satisfy even a good shot. 

 After the first cartridge or two has been fired, they get up at thirty yards 

 or so and get away very quickly, twisting and doubling as they rise, 

 so that it is no tyro's work to drop them right and left in a satisfactory 



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