352 COLUMBID^E. 



resident Doves require little or no comment as regards their nidifi- 

 cation, for there is a painful sameness about their nests, and no one 

 cares to have a series of pure white eggs. There is this difference, 

 however, that while Turtur risorius and T. cambayensis court human 

 habitations, T. suratensis and T. humilis show a decided predilection 

 for building in shrubs, hedge-rows, and even trees. 



" In 1863 I had occasion to have a standing camp for some ten 

 days ; and a pair of T. cambayensis soon discovered what appeared 

 to them an eligible site for a nest in the verandah of my single- 

 pole tent. At first I kept the inner chicks invariably down at the 

 side the Doves used to enter from, so as to allow them to construct 

 their nest unmolested, but in the course of two or three days this 

 precaution was quite unnecessary. 



" The nest, if such it can be called, was placed close to the fringe 

 of the Icunnaut, on one of the corner ropes, where it is double for 

 some six inches, and there knotted. The double portion was just 

 broad enough, being three inches apart, to support the nest with 

 careful balancing ; the knot acted as a sort of buffer, and prevented 

 the twigs from sliding off, which most assuredly would otherwise 

 have been the case, for the rope just there was at an angle of 45. 

 My tent had to be struck before the eggs were laid. 



" On another occasion a pair of these Doves built on the outer 

 ledge of a glass window-sill in my office-room, where I had ample 

 opportunity for observing their habits : both birds took their turn 

 pretty equally on the eggs, as also in feeding their young ; the 

 male bird frequently fed the female as well. 



" I believe that Doves rear several broods during the year ; I 

 have found them breeding at all seasons." 



Writing from Mussoorie, Captain Hutton tells us that the 

 Brown Turtle-Dove " arrives at 5000 feet, like the others, about 

 March or April, departing again in autumn. Its eggs are two and 

 pure white. I have observed in this, as well as in the foregoing 

 different species of Turtur, a tendency in the eggs to become 

 suddenly pointed or slightly nipple-shaped at one end." 



Lieut. H. E. Barnes writes from Afghanistan: "The Little 

 Brown Dove is not very common during summer, and between 

 October and March I did not see a single specimen. I found them 

 breeding in May." 



And later on, when in Rajpootana, he said : " The Little 

 Brown Dove breeds throughout the year ; it shows a decided pre- 

 ference for prickly-pear bushes, as I found twenty nests in them to 

 one elsewhere." 



Major C. T. Bingham remarks : " Breeds at Allahabad from 

 February to July, and at Delhi from March to end of August. It 

 is very familiar, and a pair had their nest on the top of a beam in 

 my office. Nest is a very slight structure of stiff grass-roots." 



Colonel E. A. Butler writes : " The Little Brown Dove breeds 

 in the neighbourhood of Deesa in almost every month in the year. 

 I have taken nests in February, March, April, May, June, July, 

 August, September, and October. The nest is usually placed in 



