Capt. Beavan on various Indian Birds. 375 



tarsus "875, bill^ from front, '638, spread of foot 2, extent 20. 

 Irides bright orange. Bill and legs lake-red, the latter brighter 

 than the former, and with dark claws. The vent and lower tail- 

 coverts are pure white (which perhaps may become light grey as 

 the plumage gets older). The neck-patch consists of parts of 

 five rows of feathers, and is not seen from the outside to meet 

 on the nape. The under wing-coverts are slaty- blue. I inva- 

 riably observed the species either singly or in pairs. It much 

 resembles T. meena, and seemed to me at first sight to be that 

 species ; but the dimensions of the specimens agree better with 

 Dr. Jerdon's description of T. rvpicolas, and the locality where 

 I procured them affords another reason for considering them to 

 be such. 



793. TuRTUR MEENA. Rufous Turtle-Dovc. 



My first acquaintance with this species was made when march- 

 ing in 1859 on treasure-escort from Julpigoorie to Rungpore, 

 in the Rungpore district of Lower Bengal, where we came across 

 large numbers of them in flocks frequenting the summits of the 

 tallest bamboos, and they formed no unwelcome addition at 

 that time to the table of myself and a brother officer. I have 

 since procured the species in Maunbhoom, where I think it 

 breeds, as its presumed egg was brought to me at Beerachalee 

 in the spring of 1865 ; but the bii'd itself was not very abun- 

 dant, and was probably migratory in that district. Dr. Jerdon 

 is, I think, in error when he says that this bird " does not breed 

 in the plains ; " and I doubt not that the birds mentioned as 

 " newly caught ^^ by Mr. Blyth, from the Calcutta Bazaar*, were 

 procured by natives, either from this district or the Darjeeling 

 " terai;" and in that it "goes to the hills to breed" from the 

 last-named locality, I have no doubt that Dr. Jerdon is right. 



794. TuRTUR CAMBAYENsis. Little Brown Dove. 



This is tolerably common in the Maunbhoom district, where 

 it breeds, and is called by the natives " Tirqua ghughoo." I 

 also observed it rarely at Umballah in 1866. 



* In ' The Ibis ' for 1867 (p. 12, note) Mr. Blyth refers to another 

 authority soniP remarks of my own on birds from the Rajmehal hills 

 beinj? sold in the Calcutta Bazaar. 



