THE PIGEONS. Ib 
for its pale grey head, it was almost an exact 
miniature of the domestic bird. Like most Turtle- 
doves, the Red Dove seems to breed at almost any 
period of the year, but its eggs are not perfectly pure 
white, but tinted with cream-colour. 
THE SporreD Dove (Turtur suratensis) is the opposite 
of the Red Dove as regards proportions, having a decid- 
edly long tail and short wings. “It is a little smaller 
than the Ring-dove. Its colouring is not very easy to 
describe, but quite unmistakable; the general hue is 
pinkish, running into grey on the head; there is a large 
black patch dotted with white on the back of the 
neck, and the wings and back are drab, spotted with 
pinkish fawn-colour; the four centre  tail-feathers 
are brown, the rest mostly black with white tips. Cock 
and hen are exactly alike, but the young are very dull 
and brown, without any black and white tippet and 
showing merely traces of the pretty mottling on the wings. 
The eyelids in old birds are pink-red. 
This Dove is found all over India and Ceylon, and as 
far east as Manipur ;in Burmaitisreplaced by the Malay 
Spotted Dove (Turtur tigrinus), which ranges east to 
Celebes. This species is less fully and distinctly spotted, 
and has dark grey eyelids, but otherwise is very 
similar. 
The Indian Spotted Dove is the common Dove about 
Calcutta; it is a familiar garden-bird, quite common 
even in the town, and very tame, even coming on to 
verandahs. On my own, I saw one of these Doves attack 
and buffet a Crow, which fled ignominiously before it, 
F, GAB 12 
