22 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family PEEISTEEID^S. Genus TURTUR. 



Subfamily 



EASTERN TURTLE DOVE. 



TUETUE OEIENTALIS. (Latham). 



Columba orientalis, Latham, Ind. Orn. ii. 606 (1790). 



Turtur orientalis (Lath.), Salvad. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxi.p. 403 (1893); Dixon, Nests 

 and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 331 (1894); Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 

 159 (1896); Sharpe, Handb. B. Gr. Brit. iv. p. 256 (1897). 



Geographical distribution British: A single example of the Eastern 

 Turtle Dove has been obtained in the British Islands in Yorkshire. On the 23rd 

 of October, 1889, an example in the plumage of the first autumn (without the 

 pied patches on the neck) was shot at a small stream running from Oliver's Mount, 

 near Scarborough. The specimen was exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological 

 Society of London. Conf. Proc. Zool.Soc. 1890, p. 361. Foreign: The Eastern 

 Turtle Dove is almost as great a stranger in Continental Europe, but it has been 

 twice recorded (in immature plumage) from Northern Scandinavia. It inhabits 

 India, from the central provinces northwards to the lower ranges of the Hyrnalayas 

 (4000 to 6000 feet), from Afghanistan to Sikhim. It is also found in South-east 

 Siberia, and occasionally in Mongolia and Thibet; whilst it ranges through Burma 

 and China, to the Loo-Choo Islands, Japan, and the Kuriles. Stejneger has 

 separated examples from the Loo-Choo group under the name of Turtur stimpsoni, 

 but the darker colour, upon which the distinction is based, does not appear to be a 

 reliable character. 



Allied forms. See remarks on the allied forms of the Turtle Dove. 



Habits. In its habits the Eastern Turtle Dove does not differ much 

 from its West Palsearctic representative 



Nidification. Of the breeding habits of this species, I have written in my 

 work on the nests and eggs of non-indigenous British birds, as follows : In most 

 parts of its northern area of dispersal the Eastern Turtle Dove is migratory, and 

 even in the south is subject apparently to much local movement during the non- 

 breeding season. Capt. Hutton states that it arrived in its summer quarters at 

 Mussoorie in April, leaving again in October. In its habits it is not known to 

 differ in any important respect from the nearly allied European Turtle Dove. 



