220 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



suffused with ashy-grey ; succeeding pair of feathers more grey and with 

 narrow white tips, the outermost pair black at the base and white on the 

 terminal half and edge of outer web, intermediate feathers grading from 

 one to the other. Outer wing-coverts pale grey, gradually changing into the 

 colour of the back ; primaries dark brown edged pale whitish-brown, 

 secondaries more grey, finely edged with whitish. Breast lilac lil-ce the head, 

 gradually changing to pale dove-grey on the abdomen and to darker french- 

 grey on the under tail-coverts ; flanks, axillaries and under wing-coverts 

 pale silver-grey ; under aspect of primaries light brown and of secondaries 

 greyisli-white. 



Measurements. Total length about 13 in. ( = 330 mm.) ; wing 6.25 in. 

 to 7.10 in. ( = 158.7 to 180.3 mm.) and averaging 6.65 in. ( = 168.8 mm.) 

 in Indian birds ; bill at front about .7 in. ( = 17.8 mm.) and from gape nearly 

 1 in. ( = 25.0 mm.) ; tarsus about 1 in. ( = 25.4), and tail varying from 4.6 in. 

 ( = 116.8 mm.) to 5.5 in. ( = 140.0 mm.). 



Colours of soft parts. Irides lake-red, red, or crimson ; bill almost black ; 

 edge of eyelid red, and narrow orbital skin round eye wliite, pale livid, or pale 

 slaty-grey, never yellow ; legs dark f)inkLsh-red, crimson-red, or dull purple, 

 the claws almost black. 



Female. Similar to tlie male. 



Measurements. From the series I have examined it Ls impossible to 

 determine that the female is any smaller than the male, but aviculturists 

 claim that the female is distinctly the lighter build of the two sexes and 

 easily recognizable. 



Young are browner and less vinaeeous below ; the wing-coverts are 

 edged -with pale sandy-brown, and there are narrow dark bars on the breast. 



Nestling, in down. A dirty pale yellowish-white. 



Birds from China would seem to run very large, a male in the British 

 Museum series having a wing of no less than 7.40 in. ( = 188 mm.) ; a female, 

 however, from the same place has one of only 6.75 in. ( = 171.4 mm.), a size 

 exceeded by several unsexed Indian birds. Again, a female from Japan 

 has a wing of only 6.30 in. ( = 160 mm.), which is practically the same in 

 size as that of our smallest Indian specimen. 



The colour does not seem to vary geographically, though bleached birds 

 are, of course, much paler than those in fresiily-moulted plumage. 



As regards the name wliich the Indian Turtle-Dove must bear, there 

 has been a great deal of discussion and many opinions given. In 1903 Dresser, 

 referring to the synonymy of certain Palaearctic birds, attempted to sliow that 

 neither the name douraca of Hodgson nor risoria of Linnaeus could be used 

 for this bird — risoria presumably on the strength of the oft-repeated assertion 

 that Linnaeus only intended this name to apply to the domestic bird, and 

 do2iraca because tliat name is a later one than decaocia of Frivaldsky, who 

 gave the Balkan bird this name in 1838. 



An examination of Linnaeus, however, shows that tlie bird he calls 

 risoria is that wliich Aldrovandus named Ttirtur indicus in 1637. On p. 510 

 of Vol. 15 of the Works of Aldrovandi there is an excellent plate of the Turtle- 

 Dove, and on pp. 511 et seq. there is the usual full account of habitat, habits, 

 etc. etc. Here Aldrovandus gives India as the country from which it comes, 

 adding many other places, and amongst other items observing that it is 

 most common amongst the Tartars. 



Further Linnaeus quotes Albin and Brisson, both of whom give India 



