SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF CERTAIN RING-DOVES. 199 



Stejneger's wing measurements of two Japanese ring-doves are 176 mm. for a 

 male and 174 mm. for a female. For one female of the true Indian ring-dove, 

 Stejneger found a wing-length of 160 mm. It will be seen that my Japanese ring 

 with a wing of 162 mm. is nearly the same as Stejneger's Indian ring-dove. This 

 shows that the Japanese birds certainly sometimes attain only the length given for 

 T. douraca, and hence Stejneger's size distinction of the Japanese and Indian birds 

 is probably of no value. I call the Japanese ring-doves Streptopelia douraca. (H 14) 



RECENT DESCRIPTIONS OF RING-DOVES. 



Mr. J. H. Newman" has recently undertaken to give the names and affinities of 

 the ring-doves (which he calls "collared turtle-doves") of Asia, Burma, and India. 

 The names considered are: 



decaoda (given by) Frivaldsky, 1838, to the Balkan species. 



douraca, Hodgson, 1844, to the Nepal or Indian species. 



xanlhocyclus, Newman, 1906, to the Burmese subspecies. 



torquatus,^^ Bogdanow, 1881, to the Chinese and Japanese species. 



douraca torquatus, Stejneger (1887), to Chinese and Japanese species. 



decaoda decaoda, Newman (1906), to Balkan, or "the North-eastern" species. 



Newman states that the Indian species has very generally been confounded with 

 T. risoria and regarded as the "typical form." He claims that the "type" is rep- 

 resented in the "big north-eastern race," namely, that of the Balkans to Turkestan. 

 The Balkan type differs from the Indian species in being "much larger; having a 

 broader nuchal collar; in being more conspicuously edged above and below with 

 white; more white on the outer tail-feathers; and in having the secondaries and 

 their coverts a pale pearl gray." 



Although these are all variable features, Mr. Newman thinks that taken to- 

 gether they differentiate the two forms. 



The names introduced by Newman require consideration. In order to maintain 

 the contention stated above, he makes use of trinomials for each of the three 

 species as follows: For the Balkan species, Turtur decaoda dccaocta; for the Indian 

 species, Turtur decaocfa douraca; for the Burmese species, Turtur decaocta xanthocy- 

 clus n. subsp. Mr. Newman introduces the name xanthocyclus for the Burmese 

 variety or subspecies, and gets the other names from older writers. 



In regard to the name of the Balkan (or Asiatic) species, it is noted that Von 

 Othmar Reiser, in his "Avifauna of the Balkans" (1894), cites a work by Johann 

 von Frivaldsky, entitled "Balkanyi Termesz ettudomanyi Utazasrol, Budan," 

 (1838), in which is figured and described a dove of this species. Frivaldsky 's work 

 is little known and has usually been overlooked, but the name he gives — Columba 

 decaocta — is the oldest one known for this species, as Linnseus's name, C. risoria 

 (1766), refers to the domestic species. 



Frivaldsky founded his name on the dove from the Balkan regions (The Balkans 

 through Turkestan, as far as Yarkand). Hume, in "Stray Feathers" (1874, II, p. 

 519), evidently not knowing Frivaldsky's work, named the same species Turtur 

 stoliczkce}^ 



'' Avicultural Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 11, Sept. 1906. 



'« Bogdanow adopts the name from Brisson (Orn., I, p. 92). Stejneger (1887) rejects Brisson according to the 

 A. O. U. code, and tlien makes Bogdanow responsible for the name, which he (Stejneger) applies to the Chinese- 

 Japanese species to distinguish it from the Indian species, the true T. douraca. A remarkable respect with disrespect 

 for priority. 



" Mr. Dresser published these facts in Ibis, 1903, pp. 89, 90. 

 14 



