BIEDS OF EGYPT. 215 



feathers on the sides of the neck black, tipped with white, 

 forming three distinct obhque bands of each colour ; throat 

 and chest rich purplish pink, gradually shading into pure 

 white on the abdomen ; eyelids lilac-red ; beak dusky, with a 

 reddish shade towards the base ; feet red ; irides red, tinted 

 with orange. 



Entire length 12 inches; culmen 0"7; wing, carpus to 

 tip, 7 ; tarsus 0'8. 



209. TuRTUR Sharpii, G. E. Shelley. Sharpes Turtledove. 



(Plate X. fig. 2.) K^ 



This bird arrives in the beginning of February, and by the 

 end of the month becomes plentiful throughout Egypt and 

 Nubia, and may be found breeding in great numbers towards 

 the latter end of March, some three weeks before T. auritus 

 arrives in the country. It has long been confounded with 

 the latter species, owing to the similarity of its markings ; but 

 may at once be distinguished from that bird by the absence 

 of any blue shading on the head and back, and from its wings 

 being one inch shorter from carpus to tip. I first described 

 this species in 'The Ibis,' for 1870 (p. 447), and named it 

 after my esteemed friend Mr. R. B. Sharpe, the author of the 

 ' Monograph of the Alcedinidae ' and other ornithological 

 works. This Dove I regard as a desert form of T. auritus, 

 and in some respects as intermediate between that bird and 

 T. senegalensis. It appears never to breed on the ground, as 

 the latter bird often does, but resembles it in the habit 

 of frequenting burial-grounds and sandy districts, frequently 

 at some distance from trees, which is seldom the case with 



