268 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



I cured by dropping a couple of peppercorns down the 

 birds' throats, and cold treatment during the following 

 winter completely restored them to health. The only 

 food required for this species is a mixture of two parts 

 white millet to one of dari (Indian wheat), a little white 

 kid'ney-shaped seed sold by most corn-chandlers. 



:ne years after I had sold my common Barbary 

 Doves. I purchased a pair of the white variety in the 

 hope of making them useful in hatching out and rearing 

 the young of other Doves. The white birds speedily 

 increased to eleven, and I subsequently tried them with 

 the eggs of various species of foreigners, but unfor- 

 tunately without any success ; other aviculturists have, 

 however, found them very useful. Eventually, after 

 breeding several hybrids between these and the Neck- 

 laced Dove, I gave away the whole of them, the white 

 birds to one friend, the "hybrids to another who already 

 possessed a sufficient stock of White Barbary Doves ; 

 with the latter, as already stated, they inter-bred freely. 



ASHY TURTLE-DOVE (Turtur ferrago). 



Back and rump ashy-brown, more ashy on the latter ; 

 wings dusky, the edges of the scapulars and borders 

 of the upper wing-coverts dark rusty rufous ; tail 

 bluish-black, with a broad terminal, nearly pure-white 

 belt; head bluish-ashy, rufescent on back of head and 

 nape : tips of feathers on sides of neck lavender-grey : 

 below brown, becoming whitish on the abdomen and 

 white on the under tail-coverts: bill blackish; feet 

 dull purplish-lake. Female not differentiated. Hab.. 

 "S.-W. Siberia, Turkestan, Cashmere, and Nepal; it 

 winters in Central India; straggler in Ceylon." 

 (Salvador!.) 



Hume says of this species (" Nests and Eggs of 

 Indian Birds," Second Edition, Vol. II.. pp. 349, 350): 

 "Our Indian Turtle-Dove breeds throughout the lower 

 ranges of the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to Sikhim, 

 at any rate, at elevations of from 4,000 to 8,000 feet. 

 It is for the most part only a summer visitant to these 

 hills. A few pairs linger during the winter in the 

 lower valleys, but the great majority migrate at this 

 season to the Central Provinces and Central India, 

 where it may at times, in the cold weather, be found 

 .-.ted with the next species." (T '. mci'iift.) 



" I have found eggs early in May and late in 

 August, but the great majority lay in June. It makes 

 a loose, but rather more substantial, twig nest than 

 many of its congeners, placed on some horizontal branch 

 of a large tree, usually not far from the extremity. 



" Colonel C. H. T. Marshall, writing from Murree. 

 gays : ' This species breeds in June in the pine forests. 

 l;nt I have found their nests in all kinds of trees. 

 The eggs are invariably two in number. I conclude, 

 from the very different dates on which I have found 

 the -eggs, that they have two broods, but I am not 

 certain of the fact.' " 



According to Captain Hutton. this is a "summer 

 visitor at Mussoorie, where it arrives early in April. 

 when every wood resounds with its deep-toned cooing." 



Respecting the eggs, Mr. Hume thus describes them : 

 " Regular ovals, pmv white, and very glossy. In size 

 they exceed those of T. rixinJii. and are slightly 

 smaller and decidedly less pointed than those of 

 CroropUi /i/iii-iiini/iti-ni.-- and ('. r'lilnrii/cixfiT. 



" In length they vary from 1.1 to 1.34, and in 

 breadth from 0.85 to 1.0; but the average of twenty- 

 one eggs is 1.22 by 0.93." 



An example of this Dove reached the London Zoo- 

 logical Gardens on May llth, 1907. 



K \STERN TURTLE-DOVE (Turtiir oricntalis). 



Differs from the preceding species in its vinous-red- 

 dish abdomen and grey under tail-coverts; the tail 

 with lavender-grey terminal belt. Female probably 

 smaller and duller than the male. Hab., Himalayas to 

 Central India, through Burma to Formosa, Man- 

 churia, Coren and Japan; accidental in Europe. 

 (Salvador!.) 



Hume says of this species ("Nests and Eggs," 

 Second Series, Vol. II., pp. 350, 351) : " Sykes's Turtle- 

 Dove is, as far as I have been able to ascertain, a 

 permanent resident of the hilly portions of Southern 

 India, of the broken belts of hills and forests that 

 stretch across the Continent of India from the northern 

 portion of the Western Ghats to Cuttack ; thence it 

 extends into Eastern Bengal, Cachar, Assam, and along 

 the bases of the Himalayas (which it does not ascend 

 to an elevation of above 4,000 feet), as far west as 

 the Sikhim and Nepal Terais, and again southwards 

 into Arracan, Pegu, and the north of Tenasserim. 



" It appears likely that they lay from December to 

 April. 



"Air. V. Irwin sent me a couple of eggs from Hill 

 Tipperah, taken at the end of March; and Mr. F. R. 

 Blewitt says : ' This species certainly breeds in 

 December and January. In the beginning of the latter 

 month a pair of young birds was brought to me from 

 the magnificent forest-covered hills some fifteen miles 

 south of Sumbulpore.' 



" Here I found the birds in great numbers, and in 

 the early mornings and evenings the forests resounded 

 with their thrice-repeated, deep, guttural 'coo,' so 

 unlike that of other Doves. 



"At this time the Doves were single or in pairs a 

 certain indication of the breeding season. My experi- 

 ence leads me to suppose that this species congregates 

 in flocks after the breeding season, for in March, 1869. 

 I found a flock some twelve miles south of .Seoni 

 (Central Provinces)." 



Apparently the nest is circular, neatly constructed of 

 twigs, and with a somewhat deep egg-cavity; the eggs, 

 two in number, are broad regular ovals, pure white. 

 and fairly glossy. 



Russ observes that this species reached the Zoological 

 Gardens of London in 1864, and has since that time 

 heen continually in the market, though rarely and 

 singly. At the exhibition of the Ornis Society, in the 

 year 1893, two pairs, from H. Schulze, of Altenburg, 

 and G. Reisz, of Berlin, were present." 



The London Zoological Society has altogether owned 

 a fair series of this species, and it is surprising that it 

 Humid not have been bred at the Gardens. 



MADAGASCAR TURTLE-DOVE (Turtur jrirturatus). 



" Head grey, paler on the chin, and gradually 

 shading into ashy-vinous on the remainder of the neck 

 and breast; feathers of the hind neck and sides of the 

 neck have concealed bases black, and tips greyish 

 vinous; the vinous of the neck shades into chestnut 

 on the upper back, portion of the scapulars, and the 

 smaller upper wing-coverts ; apical portion of the 

 scapulars, remainder of the wings, upper tail-covert s. 

 and central tail-feathers brown ; primaries with narrow 

 whitish edges; lower hack and rump Hatv-grey; abdo- 

 men pale vinous; under tail-coverts white: marginal 

 under wing-coverts vinous, the inner ones and axillaries 

 greyish-brown ; lateral tail-feathers slaty-grey, with an 

 obsolete subapical black band and a broad terminal 

 grey Ivand, which, on the inner web of the two outer 

 Feathers, is almost white" (Salvador!) ; " iris vollowish- 

 brown ; beak pinkish horn- col our ; nostrils and skin 



