THE RINGDOVE. 



237 



the Bengalese savage, when the Doves came out again 

 to eat and bask in the sun; then they got so tame 

 that they would actually sit on the perch and let me 

 stand close to the wire and look at them for a couple 

 of minutes before they flew away. It is just possible 

 that they might, in time, have become quite familiar, 

 but I parted with them to an amateur and am ignorant 

 of their subsequent history. 



As I have said, they were very handsome birds, 

 their necks glistened in the sun with all the colours 

 of the rainbow, and their entire plumage was covered 

 with the kind of "bloom" one sees on plums and 

 Java Sparrows and some other things: this became 

 them, and added much to the general attractiveness of 

 their appearance. 



The bill was of a pale orange colour, but the cere 

 almost white; the iris reddish-yellow, and the bare skin 

 round the eyes blue. The top of the head and the 

 back of the neck were greyish blue, and the sides of 

 the latter part reflected metallic tints of green and 

 purple on either side of the broad patches of creamy- 

 white that partly encircled the neck. This band, or 

 "ring", consisted of fourteen feathers on either side 

 and presented a conspicuous mark that is not to be 

 seen on any other kind of Dove. The throat was a 

 brownish-purple fading into light greyish-blue on the 

 breast and sides; the back was bluish-grey tinged with 

 brown at the upper part and a light greyish-blue below. 



