Species SURATENSIS. 



This species, and the Burmese fonn tigrina, have been placed by 

 Sharpe in a different genus — Spilopelia, but I cannot see that there are 

 any differences sufficiently pronounced to make it either necessary or 

 convenient to divide our Indian Doves into different genera, and I 

 therefore retain them under the name Streptopelia together with those 

 Turtle-Doves in which the male and female are similarly plumaged. 



Key to the Subspecies. 



A. Back distinctly and boldly spotted with pale rufous 



B. Back spotted very indistinctly or not at all 



.. S.s. suratensis. 

 .. S. s. tigrina. 



Well-marked specimens of these two subspecies are very easily 

 discriminated, and even where the two meet the area over which the 

 intermediate form prevails is very small, and in nearly all cases birds 

 can be assigned to one or the other of the two. 



