168 COLUMBID^E TURTUR 



Iris yellow to orange-red ; bare skin round the eye red ; bill 

 purple to black ; feet reddish-purple. 



Length about 13-5 ; wing 7'20 ; tail 5-0 ; culmen -80 ; tarsus -95. 



Distribution. The Eed-eyed Dove is not very common m 

 South Africa, except in the more thickly wooded districts from 

 Swellendam eastwards ; it is found along the south coast of the 

 Colony and extends to Natal, Mashonaland and the Zambesi, but it 

 does not appear to have been yet noticed in the Transvaal. Beyond 

 our limits it is spread over the greater part of Africa as far as 

 Abyssinia and Senegal. 



The following are recorded localities : Cape Colony Swellendam, 

 Knysna, Albany (Layard & S. A. Mus.), East London (Eickard), 

 King William's Town (Trevelyan), Port St. John's (S. A. Mus.); 

 Natal common throughout (Woodward and Millar) ; Orange Eiver 

 Colony (Holub) ; Bechuanaland Lake Ngami (Andersson and 

 Fleck) ; Ehodesia Umfuli Eiver, October (Ayres), near Salisbury, 

 scarce (Marshall), near Victoria Falls (S. A. Mus.); German 

 South West Africa Cunene Eiver (Andersson) ; Zambesi valley 

 (Alexander). 



Habits. The Woodwards state as follows: "These Doves are 

 very common throughout the country, and their loud and pleasant 

 cooing is heard wherever there is any cover for them during the 

 warmer months of the year. They are sometimes seen in large 

 flocks, but as a rule go about in pairs, and feed principally on tree 

 berries. The natives have no love for these birds, as they devour 

 a considerable quantity of grain during the planting season ; but 

 there would not be much loss if care were taken to plant the seed 

 deeper. They get very fat during the summer and are excellent eating. 

 This Dove lays its two white eggs on a few sticks, which are merely 

 an apology for a nest, generally placed in a low tree." 



Two eggs taken near Durban on June 1, by Mr. A. D. Millar, 

 now in the South African Museum, are pure white, smooth and 

 rounded oval in shape ; they measure 1-20 x '95. 



O ^b/t^^t-t^ ' ,/$. 



635. Turtur ambiguus. Bocage's Eed-eyed Dove. 



Turtur semitorquatus (nee Eiipp.}, Kirk, Ibis, 1864, p. 880. 



Turtur ambiguus, Bocage, Orn. Angola, p. 386 (1881) ; Shelley, B. Afr. 



i., p. 136 (1896) ; Reiclienow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 416 (1901). 

 Turtur decipiens (nee Finscli d- Hartl.) Sliarpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. 



p. 567 (1884). 



