LITTLE BROWN DOVE 215 



that into white on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts, 

 axillaries, and flanks dark dove-grey. 



Measurements. Length 10 to 11 in. ( = 254 to 280 mm.) ; wing from 

 4.75 in. ( = 120.6 mm.) to 5.15 in. ( = 130.8 mm.) and averaging about 

 4.95 in. ( = 125.7 mm.) ; tail 4.5 in. to 5.2 in. ( = 114.3 to 132.1 mm.) ; bill 

 at front .5 in. ( = 12.7 mm.) and from gape about .7 in. ( = 17.7 mm.), 

 tarsus about .8 in ( = 20.3 mm.). 



Colours of soft parts. Irides dark liazel-brown with an inner conspicu- 

 ous ring of white ; bill dark horny-brown, often nearly black ; legs and feet 

 pink-lake, pale scarlet or deep flesh-colour, the claws black. 



Female. Similar to the male. 



Measurements. According to Salvadori the female of this and the 

 closely allied senegalensis, from Africa, are a trifle smaller than the male, but 

 I cannot discover any such difference from the large series I have examined, 

 though probably the female is more slender and lighter. 



Colours of soft parts, as in the male. 



Young are similar to the adult, but have no signs of the gorget of black- 

 and-red feathers ; the head is duller, more brown, and less vinous-pink, and 

 the scapulars and wing-coverts are narrowly tipped with pale dull rufous 

 and subedged with a black band ; the feathers of the upper-back are also 

 obsoletely barred with darker. The breast is duller and less vinous-piok 

 and the grey feathers of the wing are margined \^'ith rufous and submargined 

 with dark grey. 



Young at an older stage than this have narrow whitish-rufous bars show- 

 ing on wing-coverts and back, and also sometimes show the faintest indications 

 of narrow bars on the breast. After the autumn-moult these all disappear 

 and the gorget appears first in blackish spots, the black base of the feathers 

 showing through the plumage before the rufous spots are developed. 



Nestling, in down. A dirty yellowish-fawn above and below. 



Distribution. Practically the whole of India west of Calcutta and 

 a line drawn thence west of the rivers Hugli, Ganges, and Kosi. But even 

 west of these rivers the Little Brown Dove is rare in all the very wet districts 

 of eastern Bengal, and I believe only wanders into these during the dry 

 months. Inglis does not report it as occurring in the Madliubani district 

 of Behar, but it certainly occurs in other districts of that province, and it 

 is found in Chutia Nagpiu", though not commonly except in the comparatively 

 dry districts of Hazaribagh and Ranclii. It is generally said to be absent 

 from the Malabar coast, but Bourdillon notes that it is to be found in the dry 

 region of the extreme south, not far from Cape Comorin, though by no means 

 common even there. It is not found in Ceylon, but occurs in the Andamans, 

 according to Osmaston, though he himself did not meet with it there, and it is 

 probably extremely rare, or possibly the occurrences are only individuals 

 which have escaped from captivity. It is not recorded thence by Hume, 

 and KIoss and Butler also did not meet with it. Outside India it is found 

 in Turkestan, Arabia, south Persia, Baluchistan, and Afghanistan. 



Nidification. Over the greater part of its range the Little Brown Dove 

 breeds throughout the year, the months February to April, and again Sep- 

 tember to November, being, perhaps, more favoured than the rest. In the 

 hUls, to which this bird is only a summer-visitor in the higher parts, it breeds 

 more or less continuously from April to October. How many times a year 



