214 BIEDS OF EGYPT. 



side of the neck metallic green, the crop tinted with claret- 

 colour ; quills dusky, with a single row of black blotches on the 

 wing ; a broad black band at the extremity of the tail, and the 

 exterior web of the outer tail-feather edged with white. In 

 adult birds the beak is yellow, with the base red ; legs blood- 

 red ; irides reddish brown. 



Entii'e length 14"5 inches; culmen 0'8 ; wing, carpus 

 to tip, 8'8 ; tarsus 1"1. 



Fig. Gould, B. of Eur. pi. 234. 



208. TuRTUE AURiTUS (Linn.). Turtledove. 

 (Plate X. fig. 1.) 



This Turtledove is abundant throughout Egypt and 

 Nubia in the spring, and frequently breeds in the country. 

 I first met with it on the 20th of April at Edfoo, when it had 

 evidently just arrived ; for I afterwards saw it daOy in greater 

 abundance than either T. senegalensis or T. Sharpii. Von 

 Heuglin (Orn. N. O. Afr. p. 840) has fallen into the same 

 error as most previous writers upon the birds of Egypt, and 

 has mistaken T. Sharpei for the present species. The accom- 

 panying plate will show the distinctness of these two Doves. 



Top of the head, back of the neck, sides of the back, rump, 

 upper tail-coverts, and outer portion of the wing-coverts 

 smoky grey ; remainder of the back brown, with dark 

 centres to the feathers ; scapulars and greater portion of the 

 wing-coverts black, broadly edged with clear yellowish brown ; 

 quiUs and tail dusky, shaded with grey ; exterior web of the 

 outer tail-feather, and a broad tip to all but the two centre 

 ones, white ; sides of the face shaded with sandy brown ; 



