296 BIRDS OF BRITISH BTJRMAH. 



small race of this Dove is found in Hainan, and has been named M. minor 

 by Mr. Swinhoe. 



The Cuckoo Doves are remarkable for their barred plumage and the 

 great length of their tails. They are of a shy disposition, keeping to thick 

 forests and associating in small flocks ; they chiefly feed on trees, seldom 

 descending to the ground. They breed in trees, making a nest of twigs, 

 and laying two eggs. Captain Wardlaw Ramsay found the nest of the 

 present species on the Karin hills in March. 



656. MACROPYGIA ASSIMILIS. 

 THE TENASSERIM CUCKOO DOVE. 



Macropygia assimilis, Hume, 8. F. ii. p. 441 j Wold, in EL B. Burm. p. 146 ; 

 Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 468 ; Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi. p. 420 ; Hume, 

 S. F. viii. p. 110. 



Description. Forehead and crown chestnut, the black bases of the 

 feathers showing through in some places; sides of the head and neck, 

 hind neck and back brown minutely freckled with greyish white ; rump 

 and upper tail-coverts brown, suffused with rufous at the edges ; wing- 

 coverts, scapulars and tertiaries dark brown tipped with chestnut ; quills 

 dark brown ; chin and throat fulvous lower plumage rufous blotched with 

 black on the breast ; under wing-coverts chestnut ; the four central tail- 

 feathers brown, the others brown at base and the remainder chestnut with 

 a subterminal dusky bar. 



Legs and feet dark brownish red; bill pinkish red or pale purplish 

 brown ; irides sometimes grey, at other times grey with an inner ring of 

 blue, at others pearly white ; orbital skin pale blue. (Davison.) 



Length 13 inches, tail 6*5, wing 5'6, tarsus '7, bill from gape '9. 



Mr. Blyth gives M. ruficeps from Burmah ; but when he wrote his 

 Catalogue the present closely allied species had not been discriminated. 

 I do not think it probable that both species occur in Tenasserim. 



The present bird differs from M. ruficeps from Sumatra and Java in 

 having black marks on the breast, and in having the hind neck and back 

 brown with no metallic gloss. 



The Tenasserim Cuckoo Dove was obtained by Mr. Davison on Mooleyit 

 mountain, and further north at Kollidoo, and it does not appear to be very 

 rare. Captain Wardlaw Ramsay procured it on the Karin hills, east of 

 Tonghoo, at an elevation of 3000 feet ; and Mr. de Wet sent it to me from 

 the same hills. 



It is difficult to trace its distribution out of Burmah; but it extends 

 some way down the Malay peninsula, Mr. Hume having received it from 

 Ulu Langat. 



