272 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



wild date, babool, Euphorbias, etc., being often, tut- 

 by no means universally, selected. Generally the nest 

 is within 15, but very rarely within 5 ft. of the 

 ground; but, again, I have found it 30 or 40 ft. up 

 in a large tree. The nest is placed indifferently in a 

 fork, in amongst numerous prongs, on a broad hori- 

 zontal bough anywhere, in fact, where a secure and 

 sufficiently wide basis can be found, and is usually a 

 mere platform some 6 inches in diameter, composed of 

 thin twigs and lined with grass-stems, with a slight 

 depression in the centre. Occasionally the nest is 

 rather more saucer-like, a few roots or grass-stems are 

 not {infrequently intermingled, and 1 have seen nests 

 composed wholly of grass. "Like our other Doves, 

 they lay two eggs as a clutch, and rear several suc- 

 cessive broods." 



" The eggs are usually broad and perfect ovals, white 

 and glossy." Three examples of this Dove were re- 

 ceived at the London Zoological Gardens in October, 

 1896. Mr. Newman had a young one produced between 

 this species and a Half-collared Turtle-Dove. 



DWARF OR RUDDY TURTLE-DOVE (Turtur humilis). 



The adult male is vinous-red ; the head, lower back, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts grey; the head, especially 

 the f orehead, is paler ; a black collar en the back of 

 the neck ; outer greater wing-coverts dark greyish ; 

 primary-coverts and quills blackish, with pale margins; 

 chin whitish ; throat vinous-red ; breast and abdomen 

 paler ; the flanks grey ; lower abdomen ashy ; under 

 tail-coverts white, more or less greyish ; tail below 

 greyish, with a broad whitish terminal belt, the central 

 feathers brownish; outer web of outer featheis white; 

 feet purplish-red ; bill black ; iris dark brown. 



The female is very distinct, the general colour being 

 a pale brown, the vinous-reddish tint of the under- 

 surface being much greyer than in the male, and the 

 black collar on the hind neck edged above with ashy. 

 Hab., Continent of India, from Assam through Burma 

 to the Andamans, and eastwards through Cochin-China 

 and China to the Philippines. 



Jerdon says ("Birds of India," Vol. III., p. 483) : 

 " It affects large groves of trees near cultivation, often 

 feeding under the shade of trees, but also betaking itself 

 to fields, grass downs, and bare spots near rivers or 

 tanks. Its coo is short, deep, and grunt-like. Blyth 

 states that he has bred them in confinement in an aviary, 

 and that cages full of newly-caught birds are often to 

 be seen in the Calcutta bird-shops." 



Hume, who evidently regards this and the extremely 

 nearly related T. tranquebaricut as identical, says of 

 it ("'Nests and Eggs," Vol. II., pp. 359-362): "The 

 Western Ruddy Dove breeds in all parts of India, but 

 is very capriciously distributed, and I am unable to say 

 what kind of country it prefers, and why it is common 

 in one district and rare in a neighbouring one in which 

 all physical conditions appear identical. 



"It is very common in the bare and treeless region 

 that surrounds the Sambhur Lake. It is common in 

 some dry well-cultivated districts, like Etawah, where 

 there are plenty of old mango groves. It is very 

 common in some of the comparatively humid tracts, 

 like Bareilly, and again in the Sal jungles of the 

 Kumaon Bhabur and the Nepal Terai. On the other 

 hand, over wide extents of similar country it is scarcely 

 to be seen. Doubtless there is something in its food < r 

 mode of life that limits its distribution, but I have 

 never yet been able to make out what this something is. 

 "Eggs may be found any time between January and 

 July, but my impression is that normally they have 



only two broods, and lay for the first as a rule in 

 January, for the second in May or June. 



"I have always found the nests at or near the 

 extremities of the lower boughs of very large trees, at 

 heights of from 8 to 15 ft. from the ground, and laid 

 across any two or three convenient horizontal branch- 

 lets. As a rule, the nests are excessively slight struc- 

 tures, composed of a few slender sticks or grass-stems. 

 or both, so loosely and sparsely put together that the 

 eggs can generally be spied from below through the 

 bottom of the nest. 



"Two is the number of the eggs." 



" The eggs (as a body, the smallest of all our Doves' 

 eggs, except those of T. senc</itli>n.<i*. 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 Rock pigeon." "In length the 

 eggs vary from 0.98 to 1.1, and in breadth from 0.75 

 to 0.85 ; but the average of twenty specimens is 1.02 

 nearly by 0.8." 



Miss Alderson purchased two cocks of this species in 

 1902, but she says that it is not often imported. Ruts 

 also states that it is very rare in the German market, 

 "though on one occasion G. Bosz, of Cologne, imported 

 a considerable number. It was present in the Amster- 

 dam Gardens in 1844, and it arrived at the London 

 Zoological Gardens in 1862, and went to nest success- 

 fully in 1864," in which year six examples were 

 presented to the Society ; two examples were also bred 

 in the Gardens in 1900. Mr. T. H. Newman, who had 

 examples of this species, gave me a hybrid between it 

 and the Barbary Turtle-Dove in 1905. This I eventually 

 gave away, and I believe it continued to breed with 

 Barbary Doves. 



CHINESE TURTLE-DOVE (Tiirtur chinensi?). 



Above pale brown ; outermost wing-coverts leaden- 

 grey ; tail with the two feathers next to the central 

 pair blackish-brown, greyish at base ; next feather black r 

 tipped with grey; three outer feathers black, broadly 

 tipped with white ; head grey, paler on the forehead ; 

 back of heairl with a vinous tinge ; nape black, spotted 

 with white at the tips of the feathers ; under surface 

 rich vinous, paler on chin and abdomen ; inner under 

 wing-coverts nearly black ; marginal under wing-coverts, 

 axillaries, sides, and under tail-coverts grey ; bill 

 brown ; feet rose-red ; irides orange-red. Female rather 

 smaller, and with the irides yellow. Hab., "Eastern 

 China, from Canton to Shanghai ; Formosa and 

 Hainan." (Salvadori.) 



Mr. J. 1). de La Touche, writing on the " Birds of 

 Formosa" (The I Ins, 1895. p. 338), says: " Abundant, 

 on the plain. Occurs sometimes in very large flocks. 

 Native name, ' Katsui.' " * 



Mr. J. C. Kershaw ('!'] Hn.<, 1904, p. 244) speaks of 

 it as the commonest resident Dove on the Quangtung 

 coast. 



Messrs. La Touche and Rickett, speaking of the 

 "Nesting of Birds in Fohkien," say (The Ibis, 1905, p. 

 57) : " A very common resident. The nest is the usual 

 flimsy structure of sticks, placed in a tree, hiuh bush, 

 or thick creeper. The eggs are elliptic oval in shape, 

 with (sometimes) one end more pointed than the other. 



" Seventeen eggs average 1.14 by .87 in. ; the largest, 

 1.20 by .89, the smallest 1.08 by .85." 



Mr. J. D. de La Touche, in his " Field Notes on tin- 

 Birds of Chinkiang " (The. Ibis, 1907, p. 16), says : 



