on the Pigeons of the Gambia.



105



found on the wings. There are two distinct races of this Dove, both

of which inhabit West Africa, and in one the wing spots are green,

in the other blue. In the first, the green-spotted (T. chalcospilos),

the spots are described as metallic golden-green, but even these are

not at all suggestive of an emerald, while in the other race (T. afra

afro) the spots are dark metallic blue—sapphires perhaps—hut not)

having the remotest resemblance to any green gem. All the birds I

have handled in the Gambia have had blue (not green) spots. The

epithet “ emerald,” too, can only cause confusion between this species

and the “ Emerald- ” or “ Green-winged Doves ” ( Chalcophaps) of the

East.


They are common throughout the Gambia, where they are

commonly seen in pairs in the hush, and are much more birds of

the uncleared parts than of the cultivated areas round the towns.

They spend much of their time on the ground, where they obtain

their food, mostly grass-seeds and the like, hut roost in hushes and

low, thick trees. They are very tame, and usually will not rise till

one is close to them, when they get up with a loud, very partridge¬

like wing-whirr, and fly off with a rapid, darting flight, and a flash of

rufous red as they spread their wings. Their note is a quadrisyllabic

“ coo,” which is commonly translated into the words “ Better-go-

home, better-go-home ”—a very accurate rendering, hut one which can

be very irritating when one is coming home after an evening with the

gun which has been chiefly marked by a series of had misses.


These Doves are easily caught and do well in captivity.


Description. —Length, in. ; tail, comparatively short. The

whole crown clear blue-grey, the forehead, lores and chin white

shading into the grey of the crown. Rest of upper surface a rather

mealy grey-brown, crossed on the rump with two bars of much darker

(sepia) brown. The wing-coverts like the back, some of the postero¬

internal ones marked with one or two circular, dark metallic blue

spots. The flights are above burnt-sienna brown, the outer two

having sepia outer webs; in the next three (about) the edges of the

outer webs and the ends are sepia, but the remaining feathers are

only tipped with this colour. The lower tier of the primary coverts

are burnt-sienna (like the flights) and tipped and edged with sepia.

The under wing-coverts are burnt-sienna, but not such a clear shade



