Pe 
=a 
INDIAN RUFOUS TURTLE-DOVE 191 
slaty-grey, primary-coverts blackish; quills brown, edged and tipped with 
pale brownish-white ; lower-throat, breast, and abdomen vinous-red, the breast 
generally rather darker than elsewhere and sometimes tinged with greyish ; 
vent, flanks, tibial plumes, and under tail-coverts rather dark slate-grey. 
Measurements. Length about 13 in. (= 330 mm.); tail 4.6 to 5.2 in. 
( = 116.8 to 132 mm.) ; wing 6.40 to 7.20 in. ( = 162.5 to 182.8 mm.) ; average 
6.92 in. (= 175.5 mm.); bill at front .60 in. (= 15.2 mm.) and from gape 
about 1 in. (= 25.4 mm.) ; tarsus about .8 in. (= 20.3 mm.). 
Colours of soft parts. Bill pale to dark horny-brown, basal half reddish 
or purplish ; irides golden-yellow, orange-yellow, orange-red to red; eyelids 
and very narrow orbital skin pale bluish or lead-colour with the edges of the 
eyelids red ; legs dull coral, purple-red, or dull brick-red, the soles paler and 
the claws nearly black. 
Female similar to the male, but is perhaps less vinous and more brown 
on the upper-parts on an average. 
Measurements. The same as in the male. In the British Museum 
Collection there are females with wings of 7.10 in. from Burma, 7.05 in. from 
Assam, and 7.30 in. from Darjiling. 
Young. The whole upper-parts where reddish-brown in the adult are 
a dark earth-brown in the young bird, and the feathers of the lower-back, 
the scapulars, coverts, and inner secondaries are boldly edged with pale rufous 
and the quills are broadly tipped with a darker, richer tint of the same colour ; 
the dark grey lower-back and rump are narrowly edged with pale grey, and 
there are also indications of pale bars on the head. Below, the breast is 
suffused with smoky-brown, and the feathers of this part are narrowly edged 
with pale rufous. 
Colours of soft parts. The same as in the adult, but duller, and the iris 
is a dull whitish-brown. 
Still younger birds have the whole upper-parts a paler, duller brown, 
this colour replacing even the grey on the rump and upper tail-coverts. 
Everywhere from fore-head to tail-coverts the feathers are narrowly edged 
with dull rufous, these bars being almost obsolete on the centre of the back. 
The coverts and quills of the wing are still more freely edged with pale rufous. 
Beneath, the throat, breast, and upper-abdomen are pale smoky-brown, each 
feather narrowly edged with pale yellowish-rufous ; the under wing-coverts, 
axillaries, and flanks are mixed grey and rufous, the former colour predominating 
on the posterior flanks. The under tail-coverts are grey as in the adult, but 
there are two or three very fine bars of black near their ends, and the tips 
are narrowly edged with rufous. This is the plumage of the young bird on 
leaving the nest. 
Nestling, in down, is covered with a pale buff down. 
Distribution. Bengal, from as far west as Manbhum, Purulia, and 
Chutia Nagpur, throughout eastern Bengal, Assam, Cachar, and Sylhet, the 
Bhutan Dooars and Terai south of it; and to the east throughout Burma 
as far as the south of Tenasserim. East of Bengal it has been obtained in 
Central India, the Deccan north of about 15° N. lat., and has been obtained 
as a rare straggler in the Central Provinces. There are two specimens in the 
British Museum Collection from Mahabaleshwar in the Bombay Presidency. 
Outside India to the north and east its place is taken by Strepiopelia turtur 
orientalis, the next bird. 
