22 Practical Bird-Kkp:ping. 



The Passerine Dove {Chamcepelja passeri?ia). 

 This is ail even smaller dove than the Piciii, and is found 

 in many parts of the world. It varies very much in the ground- 

 colour of the bird ; some are almost vinous, others brown, and 

 again I have had one bird almost black. In all, however, the 

 ground-colour is dotted with a darker shade, giving the bird an 

 almost scaled appearance. There are steel-blue dots on the 

 wings, the eyes are purple, the beak orange (or in some birds 

 yellow) with a dark-brown tip. The Passerine is very much of a 

 ground dove and can run at a great pace. 



The Cinnamon or Talpacoti Dove 

 (^Chanicepelia talpacoti). 



A small reddish-brown dove with steel-blue marks on the 

 wings and a grey head. It is rather larger in size than the 

 Passerine. 



The next in order are the BkonzE- winged Pigeons (sub- 

 family Phabi7icB). 



The Harlequin or Cape Dove (£"«« capensis). 



This pretty little dove is sometimes called the Masked 

 Dove. In shape it is long and slender, greyish and black in 

 colour with a black mask (in the cock bird) over the face and 

 throat. The bird's flight is very weak and hovering, and with 

 its long tail-feathers it looks like some large swallow-tailed 

 butterfly poised in the air, but it is seldom this dove flies about, 

 for most of the day it sits quite still on its perch unless disturbed. 

 The Tambourine Dove {Tympani stria tympanistria). 



This dove is also small, but totally diflerent in shape to 

 the Harlequin, being round and chubby. It is a most beautiful 

 little bird, rich chocolate brown in colour with dark metallic 

 spots on the wings, the forehead, cheeks and breast being pure 

 white, the contrast between this and the dark-brown is very 

 marked. The hen has no metallic spots, and is lighter-brown 

 in colour, and greyish where the cock is pure white. 

 The Australian Green-winged Dove 

 (^Chalcophaps chrysochlora). 



This is a very handsome bird and is always admired in an 

 aviary. The cock is rich maroon with bright " bottle green " 

 wings and back. The shoulder butts are pure white, the beak 



