362 COLUMBID^. 



those o T. seneyalensis, which are of much the same size) are, I 

 think, typically slightly more elongated ovals than those of our 

 other Indian species of this genus. They are of course spotless 

 and glossy, but though I have myself taken pure white ones, by far 

 the greater majority of them are of a pale ivory-white, which is 

 very conspicuous when they are placed alongside China-white eggs, 

 such as those of the Blue Hock-Pigeon. I may here notice, as a 

 result of the comparison of large series of numerous species, that the 

 eggs of Doves, as a body, appear to me to be slightly less glossy than 

 those of Pigeons, and that while in all species of Doves occasional 

 ivory-tinted examples occur, and in some species such tinting is 

 the normal type of egg, no similar tinting is noticeable in the eggs 

 of wild Pigeons I say advisedly wild, because the eggs of birds, 

 even originally wild ones, laid in confinement differ often widely 

 from their normal types, and there is in India a race of Pigeons, 

 one of the feather-footed ones (Papoosli), commonly known as the 

 Rajah of Putteeala's breed, whose eggs (at least to judge from those 

 of the pair that I kept) are as distinctly of an ivory tint as those 

 of the most characteristic egg of T. tranquebaricus. 



In length the eggs vary from O98 to !!, and in breadth from 

 0-75 to 0'85 ; but the average of twenty specimens is 1-02 nearly 

 by 0-8. 



Subfamily MACROPYGIIN.E. 



Macropygia tusalia (Hodgs.). The Bar-tailed Cuckoo-Dove. 



Macropygia tusalia (Hodgs.\ Jenl. B. 2nd. ii, p. 473 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. $ E. no. 791. 



The Bar-tailed Cuckoo-Dove breeds in well-wooded hills and 

 forests, at elevations of from 3000 to 6000 feet, in the Himalayas 

 eastwards of the Ganges, extending along the various ranges 

 eastwards and southwards to Hainan in China and the northern 

 parts of Tenasserim, south of which another species hitherto 

 identified with M. ruficeps, Temin., but which appears to me 

 separable, and which I have called M. assimilis, makes its ap- 

 pearance. 



According to Mr. Hodgson's notes this species lays in May and 

 June in the central forests of Nepal. They build a large loose 

 platform-nest of sticks on some horizontal branch, at no great 

 height from the ground. A nest taken on the 20th May, which 

 contained two fresh eggs, was a foot in diameter and 3 inches in 

 thickness. The eggs are white, with at times a very decided 

 creamy tinge, and one is figured as measuring 1*5 by 1*1. 



Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on the nidifi- 

 cation of this bird in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling : " Lays 

 in the second week of July; eggs oval, size 1'40 by 0'98; colour 

 dirty white ; nest a few sticks." 



