394



Miss R. Anderson,



The back is olive brown ; the throat, breast, and under¬

parts pure white; the front of the head greyish; the neck so

metallic as to look almost phosphorescent; the feet and legs

crimson ; eyes bright and very expressive ; the shoulder-butts

(as in No. 3 photograph of the old cock) pure white ; on each

side of the top part of the breast a large patch of maroon, shading

in a most exquisite way, into the white breast.


When the cock Violet Dove is cooing to the hen is the

time to see his gorgeous neck at its full beauty, for he puffs out

his feathers and bows very low, with his beak almost touching

the ground, thus showing the brightest part of his plumage to

the best advantage. The Bleeding-heart Dove, on the contrary,

throws himself back to show off the blood red patch on his

breast. The hen Violet Dove is rather smaller than the cock,

and her neck is less metallic. These Doves are very lightly

feathered, and the least touch will bring out their soft plumage.


And now having told you what my Violet Doves are like,

I must continue their story. The first pair of birds I had could

not fly, each one having a slightly drooping wing. One of them

broke its leg sometime later, I think through catching a claw

in some way, and after lingering a few days it died. I wrote to

my friend to see if he could replace it, and found he had several

Violet Doves left from another importation, and in March, 1902,

I procured from him a cock bird.


This last Dove was a particularly large and lovely

specimen and had been hand-reared by the natives. To my great

disappointment he would not take to my other bird, perhaps

because she could not fly, and to my alarm the new-comer began

to pine away. I bitterly regretted I had not procured his

original mate, and wrote to see if it was still possible to get her,

but found she had been already sold with the rest of the Violet

Doves to a lady in Germany. The next month, however, my

friend received one odd bird, the only one living out of a large

consignment, all the remaining birds having died, owing to

neglect and delay in their delivery after landing in England. I

thankfully accepted the offer of this one bird, though I did not

know its sex, and my friend warned me it was in terrible

plumage, though health}'.



