(45) STREPTOPELIA RISORIA XANTHOCYCLA (Newman). 
THE BURMESE RING-DOVE. 
Turtur xanthocycla Newman, Avi. Mag. 1896, p. 321; Mears, J.B.N.H.S., 
XVIII, p. 86; Harington, B. Burma, p. 68. 
Turtur douraca Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 480 (part). 
Turtur risorius Blanf., Avi. Brit. I., IV p. 46 (part); Anderson, Yunnan 
Exp., p. 666; Hume, Str. Feath., III p. 165; Wald., in Blyth’s B. Burma, 
p. 146; Oates, Str. Feath., X p. 235; id., B. Brit. Burma, II p. 293; 
Hume, Str. Feath., XI p. 299 (part); Macdonald, J.B.N.H.S., XVIII 
p. 496. 
Streptopelia dourica Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 79 (part); Oates, Cat. Eggs 
B.M., I p. 96 (part). 
Vernacular Name. Gyo-lin-bya, Burmese. 
Description.—Adult male. “In general appearance like 7’. decaocta 
decaocta”’ (Streptopelia risoria), “but easily distinguished by broad yellow 
bare rings round the eyes ” (Newman). 
“The colour generally is darker and more vivid than in Indian specimens 
of this species, and the collar is larger and more crescentic than in ordinary 
7. risorius, and if Jerdon’s measurements are founded on fresh specimens, 
this bird is decidedly larger. He gives 13 in. as the extreme length, but my 
specimen measures 14 in., its wing 7 in., and its tail 6 in.” (Anderson’s 
Report on the Expedition to Western Yunnan.) 
There is little on record about this Dove except what has been written 
by Mr. Newman in the Avicultural Magazine already referred to; he there 
sums up as follows the evidence to show that the Burmese and eastern bird 
is different to the Indian: ‘‘The Burmese bird possesses most remarkable 
yellow rings of bare skin round its eyes, which are most conspicuous in the 
living bird. I do not know any other Turtle-Doves of any species what- 
ever that has yellow round the eye. I had hoped to have been able to 
compare the plumage with birds from India, etc., which the lamentable 
destruction of the specimen now renders impossible. I am informed by 
those who know the Collared Turtle-Dove well in India, where it is a common 
bird and frequently kept in cages, that there it has no such yellow bare 
skin, in fact, in this respect it seems to resemble the domestic Barbary 
Dove. I have also looked up numerous references, and in every case when 
the colour of the orbital skin is given (excluding the two localities Burma 
and China mentioned below) it is described as ‘ Lower eyelid slaty-grey ’” 
(this is the typical form from Yarkand), Scully, Stray Feathers, IV p. 178; 
‘orbital skin bluish-white’ (Eastern Bengal), Cripps, ib., VII p. 297; 
and again ‘orbital skin bluish-white’ (Ceylon), Legge, Birds of Ceylon, 
p. 702; also ‘orbital skin whitish’ (Palestine), Dresser, Birds of Europe, 
VII p. 51. In the original drawing from which fig. 2 in the plate has been 
traced, which was taken from the type of J'urtur douraca, the skin round 
the eye is coloured greyish-white, with no sign of yellow. This is a native 
Q 
