TUBTTTB. 351 



Captain Button *. The pair I have are very tame, and the coo of 

 the male (I have not heard the female) is far oftener heard of a 

 morning and evening than during the day. When irritated they 

 utter a peculiar loud hissing kind of note. I have not met with 

 this Dove in the Raipoor District, though very likely it is to be 

 found in the ranges of hills west and south." 



The eggs of this species, sent me by Mr. Irwin from Tipperah 

 and from Eaipoor by Mr. Blewitt, vary a good deal in size, and 

 are, just like so many other Doves' eggs, more or less broad regular 

 ovals, pure white, and fairly glossy. 



They seem to average a good deal smaller than those of T. put- 

 chrcda, but then most of my eggs were laid in confinement by a 

 young bird. They vary in length from 1*05 to 1*23, and in breadth 

 from 0-86 to 0-95. 



Turtur senegalensis (Linn.). The Brown Turtle-Dove. 



Turtur cambayensis (Gm.~) } Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 478; Htfme, Rough 

 Draft N. $ K no. 794. 



The Brown Turtle-Dove breeds pretty well all over the plains of 

 India and in the outer ranges of the Himalayas to an elevation of 

 4000 or 5000 feet. 



The earliest nest I ever obtained was at Etawah on the 1st 

 January, and the latest at Agra on the 2nd August : the first con- 

 tained one, the second two fresh eggs. 



The nest is a very slight one, commonly placed in low trees or 

 shrubs, often thorny ones, at no great height from the ground, but 

 occasionally about the roofs or in niches of buildings. The nest 

 is composed of thin twigs, grass-stems, and sometimes a root or 

 two, but has no lining. 



They build at times in palms. I have found several nests of 

 this species in the bristling crowns of young wild date-trees 

 (Phcenix sylvestris). 



They have certainly two broods, and often, I think, three, in the 

 same nest, successively. 



Two is the regular complement of eggs, but I have very often 

 found only one incubated, or a single young bird, in a nest. 



Mr. A. Theobald writes : " On the 15th August, at the Salem 

 railway-station, I found a nest of this bird placed between the 

 leaves of a plant of the Agave americana, not above three feet from 

 the ground. The nest was the usual irregular platform of dry 

 pieces of grass-stems and small thin twigs carelessly put together, 

 and contained the usual two milk-white eggs ; but the situation 

 seemed to me to be unusual." 



The late Mr. A. Anderson remarked : " Our four species of 



* Button's bird was T. pukhrala, not T. meant. He sent me both birds and 

 eggs; and, as a fact, T. meena never occurs about Mussoorie. 



