168 Practical Bird-Keepbig.—III Pigeons and Doves.


shoulder is a bar of steel-blue feathers right across the wing.

The eyes are very lovely, the iris purple surrounded with a pale

straw-coloured outer ring.


The Passerine Dove ( Chamoepelia passerina).


This is an even smaller dove than the Picui, and is found

in many parts of the world. It varies very much in the ground¬

colour of the bird ; some are almost vinous, others brown, and

again I have had one bird almost black. In all, however, the

ground-colour is dotted with a darker shade, giving the bird an

almost scaled appearance. There are steel-blue dots on the

wings, the eyes are purple, the beak orange (or in some birds

yellow) with a dark-brown tip. The Passerine is very much of a

ground dove and can run at a great pace.


The Cinnamon or Talpacoti Dove

('Chamoepelia talpacoti).


A small reddish-brown dove with steel-blue marks on the

wings and a grey head. It is rather larger in size than the

Passerine.


The next in order are the Bronze-winged Pigeons (sub¬

family Phabince).


The Harlequin or Cape Dove ( Ena capensis).


This pretty little dove is sometimes called the Masked

Dove. In shape it is long and slender, greyish and black in

colour with a black mask (in the cock bird) over the face and

throat. The bird’s flight is very weak and hovering, and with

its long tail-feathers it looks like some large swallow-tailed

butterfly poised in the air, but it is seldom this dove flies about,

for most of the day it sits quite still on its perch unless disturbed.


The Tambourine Dove ( Tympanistria tympanistria).


This dove is also small, but totally different in shape to

the Harlequin, being round and chubby. It is a most beautiful

little bird, rich chocolate brown in colour with dark metallic

spots on the wings, the forehead, cheeks and breast being pure

white, the contrast between this and the dark-brown is very

marked. The hen has no metallic spots, and is lighter-brown

in colour, and greyish where the cock is pure white.



