392 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



652. TURTUR MEENA. 

 THE RUFOUS TURTLE DOVE. 



Columba meena, Sykes, P. Z. 8. 1832, p. 149. Turtur meena, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. 

 p. 476 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 501 ; id. 8. F. iii. p. 163 ; Bl. B. Burm. 

 p. 146; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 665 ; Hume fy Dav. 8. F. vi. p. 420 ; Hume, 

 S. F. viii. p. 110 ; Scully, 8. F. viii. p. 340; Oates, 8. F. x. p. 235. 



Description. Male and female. Forehead, crown, nape, hind neck and 

 back ashy brown, suffused with vinous, and the feathers indistinctly edged 

 with rufous ; a patch on either side the neck black, each feather tipped 

 with grey ; lower back and rump dark ashy, edged paler ; upper tail-coverts 

 brown, edged with pale rufous ; scapulars, tertiaries, lesser and median 

 coverts brown, broadly edged with rufous ; greater coverts and secondaries 

 edged with ashy, the innermost ones edged with rufous ; primaries dark 

 brown edged with rufous ; lower plumage vinous-red tinged with purplish 

 in some, paler on the chin and throat ; sides of the body, under wing- 

 coverts, vent and under tail-coverts ashy; central tail-feathers ashy brown, 

 the others ashy brown tipped with grey. 



Bill brown, with a tinge of vinous on the basal half; iris orange-red; 

 eyelids pale blue ; the edges of the eyelids red ; legs vinous-red ; claws 

 black. 



Length 13 inches, tail 5, wing 7, tarsus 1*1, bill from gape 1. The 

 female is of the same size. 



The present species differs from its ally, T. rupicola apud Jerdon, prin- 

 cipally in being smaller, and in having the under tail-coverts dark ashy, 

 instead of white tinged with ashy, and in having the plumage browner 

 and less richly coloured. I have not been able to arrive at any con- 

 clusion of my own regarding the validity of these two species, the distinct- 

 ness of which is questioned by Mr. Dresser and Dr. Scully, and upheld by 

 Mr. Hume and others. It is convenient at present to regard T. meena as 

 distinct from T. rupicola, more especially as all the Doves of this type found 

 in Burmah agree in having the under tail-coverts ashy, concolorous with 

 the under wing-coverts, vent and sides of the body, and not whitish as in 

 T. rupicola. 



The Rufous Turtle Dove is spread over the whole Province, and is a per- 

 manent resident, but is nowhere very common. Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay 

 observed it in Karennee at 4000 feet elevation. 



It occurs in the Indo-Burmese countries, and in the hill-tracts of Eastern 

 Bengal, extending along the foot of the Himalayas to Nipal and thence 

 across Central India to Bombay. According to Dr. Tiraud it is met with 

 in Cochin China ; but it is not found in the Malay peninsula so far as is at 

 present known. 



