THE MALAY SPOTTED DOVE. 291 



black, each feather with two squarish white spots at the tip; back, 

 scapulars, wing-coverts and rump brown ; each feather blackish along the 

 shaft and tipped on both webs with lighter brown ; the outermost wing- 

 coverts pure grey on the outer webs ; quill dark brown, some of the 

 tertiaries with blackish shaft-streaks and tipped paler; tail brown, the 

 outer feathers broadly tipped with white, the white reduced in extent 

 interiorly and disappearing on the fifth pair of feathers, which are dark 

 brown ; central pair conspicuously paler brown. 



The young have no white spots on the neck at first. 



Bill bluish black ; eyelids and skin of face plumbeous ; irides reddish ; 

 legs deep red ; claws dark horn. 



Length 12*4 inches, tail 6, wing 5*5, tarsus 1, bill from gape '9. The 

 female is of about the same size. 



T. suratensis from India differs in having the shaft-streaks on the upper 

 plumage well defined and terminating in a dark spot on the tips of the 

 feathers ; the terminal spots on both webs of these parts are also very large 

 and of a vinaceous pink colour. T. chinensis, from China, differs in being 

 larger and in entirely wanting the dark shaft-streaks on the upper 

 plumage. 



The Malay Spotted Dove is extremely abundant over the whole 

 Province. 



It extends northwards through the Indo-Burmese countries to Cachar, 

 and eastwards to Cochin China. It ranges down the Malay peninsula to 

 Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the more distant islands as far as Celebes and 

 Amboina. 



This familiar Dove is met with in all the open and cultivated parts of 

 the Province, and also in small numbers in forests and dense jungle ; 

 it does not, however, ascend the higher hills. It feeds entirely on the 

 ground, on seeds and grain. 



It breeds almost all the year round, but chiefly from August to March, 

 making a flimsy nest of twigs in low trees, bushes and bamboos, and laying 

 two eggs. 



