TURTLE-DOVES. 



"Abundant and resident. I have obtained eggs all 

 through, the spring and summer. On May 24 I found a 

 Dove of this kind sitting on two much-incubated eggs in 

 an old nest of Dryonastes perspicillatus placed on a 

 bamboo some 12 ft. above the ground. A nest with two 

 fresh eggs, found on May 29, was built in the upright 

 fork formed by the two main boughs of a tree. It was 

 fully exposed to view, and was practically suspended 

 between the two branches. " 



Russ says that although this species was already in 

 the Amsterdam Zoological Gardens in 1843, and in those 

 of London in 1869, it is extremely rare and only appears 

 singly in the German market. At Regent's Park a fair 

 number of specimens has been exhibited, the last 

 recorded in the ninth edition of the " List of Animals " 

 having been presented in 1891. The first examples 

 which I received of T. tigrinus were sold to me as this 

 species. 



NECKLACED DOVE (Turtur tigrinus). 



The adult male has the head bluish-grey, washed on 

 the crown, nape, and sides of neck with vinous- 

 brownish ; the mantle is black, each feather in front 

 spotted with white, but towards the back with buff ; 



NECKLACED DOVE (Turtur tigrinus.) 



the upper parts rufous-brown, the feathers of the back 

 with paler fringes ; the scapulars and upper wing- 

 coverts paler, the lesser _ coverts with conspicuous blaok 

 shaft streaks ; secondaries and tertiaries deep rufous- 

 brown, with black shaft streaks; outermost coverts 

 with grey-brown inner webs, black shaft-streaks, pearl 

 grey outer webs, fading externally to a pure white 

 margin ; primaries blackish with pale outer margins ; 

 two central tail-feathers brown, next pair black with 

 slightly greyish terminal belt, succeeding pair black 

 with ash-grey terminal belt, remainder black with broad 

 terminal white belts ; lores black ; chin and centre of 

 throat white ; breast dull vinous, becoming paler on 

 the abdomen, and partly white on the vent and under 

 tail-coverts ; feet reddish flesh-coloured ; bill black ; 

 iris reddish pearl. 



The female is barely distinguishable from the male, 

 but is perhaps a little" smaller. 



The young in first plumage is altogether more ashy 

 in colour, and shows no trace of the spotted black 

 mantle, the under parts, especially on the abdomen, 

 more huffish, with the vent and under tail-coverts 



white ; feet dark flesh pink ; bill dark leaden grey ; iris 

 pale straw-yellow. Hab., Burma, the Malay Peninsula, 

 Sunda Islands south of Timor, and the Moluccas 

 piobably in winter only. 



In Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," 

 Vol. II., pp. 356, 357, we read : " Writing from Upper 

 Pegu, Air. Eugene Oates remarks that this bird, is 

 common everywhere except on ,the hills, where I did 

 not meet with it. It seems to breed at all times of 

 the year. Two eggs measure 1.21 by 0.88 each. They 

 are, of course, pure white. The nest is generally placed 

 low i.e., under 15 feet from the ground, in bamboo 

 bushes or shrubs.' 



" Again, writing from Wau, in Lower Pegu, he 

 remarks : ' The nest of this bird is >to be found all the 

 year through. It is a common bird in the plains, but 

 becomes rather rare in the various hill-tracts. The 

 nest ie built flimsily of fine twigs, so loosely put together 

 that the eggs may be seen from below. It is generally 

 placed in thick bamboo brakes at various heights, but 

 most frequently at from 10 to 20 feet from the ground. 

 Eggs invariably two in number. A good thick jujube- 

 tree is often chosen by this bird for the purpose of 

 nesting.' 



" Two eggs sent me by Mr. Oates measure 1.2 by 

 0.88, and 1.22 by 0.77." 



In all probability, like its near ally, the Indian 

 " Spotted Dove," this bird breeds everywhere. It is 

 admitted to be an easy species to breed in captivity. 



In 1894 I bought a supposed pair of this bird and 

 turned them into a garden aviary, where I soon dis- 

 covered that both were cocks, one eventually killing the 

 other. In 1897 I purchased .a female, hung up a, box 

 with bran in it and a few twigs scattered over the top, 

 and early in August I found a broken egg on the floor, 

 probably dropped by Zenaida auriculata, a pair of 

 which took turns with my pair of Necklaced Doves in 

 hatching their eggs. 



The first young one left the nest on August 28th, and, 

 owing to a misunderstanding, was kept without food for 

 the best part of the day ; the second bird flew the 

 following day, though not fully fledged. One of the 

 young was killed by a Nicobar Pigeon on September 

 the 9th, and the second died through catching cold on 

 the 17th. 



About the middle of September I fixed up a series of 

 pigeon boxes, in one of which the hen again laid, and 

 the pair incubated the eggs steadily, but they proved 

 to be clear. In the following spring the cock died ; the 

 hen, however, lived some years later. 



On the 13th February, 1900. I bought a reputed pair, 

 which, however, were not only two cocks, but appear 

 to have belonged to the next species, for when I sent 

 them to the London Zoological Gardens some years later 

 they were identified there as T. suratensis. The sup- 

 posed male was constantly showing off to the supposed 

 female, a slightly smaller bird, but naturally without 

 result. The Doves seem to be singularly deficient in 

 discernment, males frequently behaving to other males 

 precisely as though they imagined them to be females. 

 In many of them undoubtedly the colour differences are 

 very slight, but one would imagine that the birds them- 

 selves would be able to see difference's. The coo is 

 usually a rattling " Gwar, go," but sometimes it ie 

 trisyllabic " Who-hoo-hoo." 



An abundantly imported species, first purchased by 

 the Zoological Society in 1884 



SPOTTED TURTLE-DOVE (Turtur suratensis). 



A bove brown ; each feather of the upper back and 

 scapulars with two pale vinous-isabelline terminal 

 spots, expanding- upon each side of the feather; wing- 



S 



