THE PIGEONS. LD 
ancestor of the domestic kind. But it has a distinctly 
different coo, and does not, so far as I know, ever utter 
the characteristic laughing note of the other. 
This is one of the commonest birds over most of India 
and Ceylon, but is rare in Burma; it has a very wide 
range outside our limits, to Central Asia, Turkey, and 
China. In Yarkand it is a regular town bird, and in India 
is a common garden-bird in most places. About Calcutta, 
however, this is not the case, the Species being rare, if 
found at all. 
THE RED Dove (Qnopopelia tranquebarica) is a small 
species, with the tail shorter in proportion, even to its 
size, than most Turtle-doves ; its length is thus only about 
nine inches. The hen is drab with a black crescent on 
the back of the neck and white tips to the side tail- 
feathers. She thus looks very like a miniature wild Ring- 
dove, but the difference of size is too great for any real 
confusion to arise. 
The cock Red Dove is very different from any other 
species, and even from his own hen, a remarkable case 
in this family. He is of course of the same size and 
shape as she is, and he also has the same black collar 
and white tips to the side tail-feathers, but his body 
colour is altogether different, being of a pinkish 
brick-red—about the shade that ladies used to call 
“‘crushed strawberry’’ a few years ago. His head and 
centre tail-feathers are of a delicate ash grey, well 
setting off the red. 
Young cocks are drab, like the hens, at first. This 
beautiful Dove has a very gentle innocent appearance, its 
