156 MISCELLANEOUS BIRDS. 



COLUMBAE. 



Passing over the parrots, the birds of prey, the herons and the 

 ducks, we come to the dove family, which includes the pigeons, doves 

 and, according to Ogilvie Grant, the sandgrouse. The last forms a 

 connecting link, through the pigeons, between the waterfowl (ducks, etc.) 

 on the cne hand and the game birds (true grouse, pheasants, etc.) on 

 the other. 



Columbae is not a very large order, though its members, 

 judging from the vast numbers in which they occur, seem 

 to be eminently successful in the struggle for existence. One 

 of the commonest members of the family is the rockdove 

 (Columba rupestris). Birds of this species make their homes, as the 

 names suggest, in rocky ravines and loess gullies, wherever they may 

 find a shelf broad enough to deposit their eggs. In winter they fore- 

 gather in great flocks, sometimes numbering many thousands, and scour 

 the country side for food. At such times they offer excellent sport, 

 and one may either take them singly as they pass and repass overhead, 

 or else pot them as they feed. Of course this latter method does not 

 appeal to the finer sporting instincts, and is only excusable on the plea 

 that the birds are needed for food, and that cartridges are too hard to 

 secure in the interior to waste upon difficult and doubtful shots. The rock 

 dove is to all intents and purposes just a common blue pigeon. It differs 

 from its European cousin in having a broad white band across the tail. 



The turtle dove (Turtur orientalis) is another member of the same 

 family, which is rather plentiful in the northern provinces. It keeps 

 to the well wooded areas, where it nests in low trees, building little 

 more than a loose platform of twigs and pine needles. Two eggs are 

 usually deposited at a time, which is the case with all the pigeon family. 

 During the mating season the males may frequently be seen to fly 

 upwards from the woods attaining an altitude of a hundred feet or 

 more above the tree tops, then spreading their wings they sail gracefully 

 down again, and are lost to view in the dense foliage. There are few 

 sounds more romantic than the mating coo coo of the turtle dove, and 

 none more reminiscent of the pine woods. 



Another dove (T. risorius) occurs more on the plains, where it 

 frequents groves and orchards. This species is lighter than the turtle 

 dove, and has none of the markings on the back. It has a plain blacJt 

 band or collar on the neck, which in the turtle dove is speckled with 

 lavender. Both these birds, but more especially the latter offer good 

 sport, when nothing else is to be had. 



