LITTLE BROWN DOVE 217 
22.8 mm.)”; but the average of forty eggs is 1.01 in., barely, by 0.86 in. 
full ( = 25.6 by 21.9 mm.). 
They breed up to at least 5,000 ft. in the Himalayas. 
The Little Brown Dove is a resident, non-migratory bird, but like 
many others of this family, moves about locally according to the abun- 
dance or otherwise of its food-supply, and also up and down the mountains 
to some extent under the influence of the various seasons. 
On the whole, it is a bird of drier climates than is the Spotted Dove, 
far more tolerant of heat and drought combined and also more re- 
stricted to open country. In its habits it is just as confiding and tame 
as the last bird, and resorts regularly to gardens and compounds and 
the immediate vicinity of villages, where it runs about on the ground 
picking up grain and the various seeds upon which it chiefly feeds. 
If not harassed or frightened it will hardly move out of the way of the 
children as they play about, and when forced to move, merely flies 
to the nearest bare branch of a tree, where it sits and ‘“‘ coos” until 
it once more returns to the ground to feed. 
Its flight is much like that of the Spotted Dove: they rise with a 
clatter and much flapping of the wing straight up from the ground 
for two or three feet, and then more quietly fly straight away. Once 
on the wing they are capable of flying with great speed, but normally 
fly rather leisurely and with slow beats, alternating with short sailing 
movements. 
When courting, their actions on the wing are very pretty: as a 
tule they perch high up on some bare branch, and after much billing 
and cooing to his little mate, the male suddenly launches himself high 
into the air, his wings meeting over his head in loud claps as he mounts 
higher and higher, and then there is a sudden stoppage of the noise 
and he sinks slowly with widespread wings in gradually lessening spirals 
back to the side of his wife. 
These birds probably pair for life and are most affectionate to one 
another and very faithful. They are also excellent parents and 
share all duties between them, the hen generally sitting by day when 
they have eggs, and the cock by night, and the latter also constantly 
feeds and attends to his wife when she is thus employed. But though 
in their own family circle they show such admirable traits, outside 
they share in full with the other members of their tribe the faults of 
greediness and quarrelsomeness. 
