BRONZE-WINGED PIGEONS. 



283: 



years' experience of this species in captivity. It struck 

 me as, without exception, the dullest and least interest- 

 ing Dove I ever had. Doubtless if I could have ob- 

 tained a hen things would have been livelier. 



Although this bird has been bred in Germany, Dr. 

 Russ considers it a difficult bird to rear, as the brood 

 is especially likely to be lost through misadventure. He, 

 however, had a pair which nested on the floor behind 

 a large cage, and brought up the young. 



The London Zoological Society first purchased eight 

 specimens of this Dove in 1855, and has had many 

 others since that date. Writing in 1903, Miss Alderson 

 says: "I have never been successful in breeding this 

 Dove, though my liens have laid 



TAMBOURINE DOVE (Tympanistria tympanistria). 



The adult male is brownish-grey above ; the fore- 

 head, eyebrow stripes, cheeks, and under surface pure 

 white ; the lores dark brown ; two broad dark brown 

 belts a-cross the rump, with a pale greyish-brown "belt 

 between them ; a similar indistinct band bordering the 

 second dark belt ; inner wing-coverts and secondaries 

 spotted with very dark green or purple ; -primary- 

 coverts and primaries cinnamon, the outer webs and 

 tics dark brown ; six central tail feathers deep reddish- 

 brown, the outer ithree on each side shading into grey 

 and having a black subterminal belt ; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries cinnamon ; lower flanks washed 

 with brown ; tail below brown, with indistinct subter- 

 minal belt ; the central feathers with pale brown tips, 

 the outer ones with grey tips ; ifeet dull crimson ; bill 

 dark purplish ; iris hazel to dark brown. 



The female has the forehead, cheeks, and under sur- 

 face somewhat greyish, and the wing spots blackish 

 without metallic shading. 



I described the young at nine days old as follows 

 (The Avicultural Magazine, Second Series, Vol II., 

 p. 101) : " The skin, where not feathered, is of an ash- 

 grey colour, the crown of the head sparsely covered with 

 straggling sandy-coloured hairs, the neck and sides of 

 breast below clothed with half-developed whity-brown 

 downy feathers, those of the breast with broad, ill- 

 defined subterminal blackish transverse bands ; the 

 flanking feathers of the abdomen are also downy, but 

 pure white ; all the feathers of the wings and tail are 

 of a bright coffee-brown, colour, with oroad sub-ter- 

 minal irregular transverse black bands ; the bill is black 

 with bone yellowish tip; the feet dark horn-brown, 

 becoming almost black on the toes ; the claws reddish- 

 horn colour." 



In 1906 (The Avicultural Magazine, Vol. IV., p. 309) 

 I described the young at nineteen days of age, thus : 

 " Colouring of upper parts largely bronze-brown, but 

 the feathers barred with buff and black ; flights reddish- 

 chestnut; tail chiefly vinous brown, the outermost 

 feathers white. Forehead and broad eyebrow streak 

 buff ; the feathers at sides of crown standing in curved 

 rows 'So as to produce a sorb of divided crest, buff- 

 brownish ; ear-coverts and cheeks leaden-grey, the 

 former apparently narrowly barred white and buff, but 

 this appearance is probably partly due to the sheaths 

 still remaining on the feathers at this part of the 

 head; S1 des of neck, throat and breast buffish-brown 

 with narrow blackish bars; abdomen white; bill dull 

 black ; feet dark leaden-grey, with a faint sub-tint of 

 lesh colour; the eye was too sunken to describe." 

 Hab., South Africa generally ; on the west coast north- 

 ward to Casamanca, and on the east to Mombas ; also 

 Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, and Fernando Po. 



Messrs. Stark and Sclater say of this Dove (" Birds 



of South Africa," Vol. IV., pp. 179, 180) :" The Tam- 

 bourine Dove is only met with in thickly wooded dis- 

 tricts, such as are usually found near 'the coast. It 

 derives its name from its note 'coo coo,' repeated slowly 

 at first and afterwards more quickly, till finally it ends 

 in a more or less prolonged rattle resembling that of a. 

 tambourine. Its note is often heard in the middle of 

 the day, when other birds are silent. According to 

 Ayres it is seen .in pairs or singly, but not in com- 

 panies. It is very active and lively, of rapid flight,, 

 and feeds on the seeds of trees which have dropped on 

 the ground, the principal one being that of the castor 

 oil plant. 



" The nest is built in a low tree, and consists of the/ 

 usual rough platform of sticks, on which are laid two- 

 yellowish-white eggs. 



" A clutch of two, taken by iMr. A. D. Millar, on. 

 Dec. 10, at Umgeni, near Durban, and presented by him, 

 to the South African Museum, are oval, smooth, and 

 ivory-white, measuring .95 x -75." 



After 1883 this Dove was imported freely for a time,, 

 and then again it disappeared i'rom the market. A pair 

 was brought home by Lieut. Horsbough in 1899 and 

 given to my friend Mr. James Housden, of Sydenham, 

 on condition that if they bred I should have the first 

 pair of youngsters ; unluckily for me, they did not 

 breed, and so for a time I was without this charming, 

 species. However, Mr. T. L. Bonstow, noting in the 

 second part of my " Foreign Bird-Keeping " that I had 

 never possessed it, brought home a pair (together -with 

 a female Emerald Dove) and gave them to me in> 

 August, 1902. 



Up to November, 1903, although many eggs were laid 

 by my hen Tympanistria, none were hatched either in- 

 the Uird-xoom or my larger garden aviary ; then one 

 young one was hatched in the bird-room and fed until 

 nine days old, when its parents deserted it. 



After 1903 and up to 1906 no eggs were hatched by 

 these birds ; therefore, as I desired to give them every 

 opportunity, I again turned them out in the spring of 

 1906 into my lower though longer outdoor aviary, hav- 

 ing previously moulded a sorb of shallow basin .of slen- 

 der branches and twigs, at about 4 ft. from the cement, 

 floor, in the thicket of dead branches which partly fills 

 the more remote covered part of the aviary. 



The birds were turned out on May 3 and eggs were 

 laid in the nesting site which I (had prepared on June 

 6 and 8, the birds beginning to sit on the 8th, the cock; 

 turning the hen off the nest and taking her place at 

 9.30 a.m. and the hen returning to the nest at about 

 2.45 p.m. 



On June 20 I found the first half-shell on the floor, 

 and on the following day the second half-shell was- 

 brought out, there being just a, day between the hatching 

 of the two young birds. That T i/mpanistria should' 

 have hatched out on this occasion on the thirteenth 

 morning, 'whereas in the considerably cooler bird-room 

 the egg hatched in 1903 took four days longer to incu- 

 bate, was to me a matter of great interest. 



Of the two birds hatched, one fell out of the nest 

 and evidently injured itself, as it died on July 9 ; the 

 other /'a cock bird) was successfully reared. The parents 

 went to nest again, and reared two young ones until 

 they left the nest, when they neglected to feed them, so 

 that both died. In 1907 they again nested twice, 

 but only fed one of the four youngsters which left the- 

 nest ; this proved to be a hen. In 1908 they nested" 

 three times, but again behaved as before, so that one- 

 hen only was reared. In, 1909 the weather was so un- 

 favourable that the first nest appears to have come tx> 



