152 THE PIGEONS AND DOVES, 



neck there is a miniature chessboard in red and black. 

 The feet are red. That this kind of dove should be 

 found only in Bombay is a very curious fact, which I 

 do not know how to account for. India is rich in 

 species of doves, some of which are widely distri- 

 buted and some rather local. All over the plains 

 of the Deccan two species divide the land. The 

 large, pale-gray Ringdove (Turtur risoria} swarms 

 in the open country, and the little Turtle Dove 

 above-mentioned frequents the stations and gardens. 

 In Poona it is the " common or garden " Dove, 

 walking in the middle of the paths and uttering 

 its broken disyllabic coo from the pricklypear 

 hedges. But you may go down the whole west 

 coast, from Bombay southwards to Malabar, without 

 meeting it, or the Ringdove either. Their place is 

 taken by the beautiful Spotted Dove, with its 

 mournfully sweet voice. On the mainland and 

 islands just across our harbour it is very plentiful ; but 

 I have never seen it in Bombay. The doves I have 

 met with about Cumballa and Malabar Hills all 

 belong to the species so common in Poona. I do not 

 know whether it ever breeds in Bombay. Elsewhere 

 it makes its nest in a prickly-pear, or any other thick 

 bush, if you can apply the word nest to a flimsy 

 platform of sticks, so thin that the two white eggs 

 can be seen through it from below. 



The name of the Plain Brown Dove in Jerdon is 

 Turtur cambayensis^ but in later books T. senegalensis. 

 The Spotted Dove is T. suratensis. These names 

 are historical monuments, indicating the places from 

 which the first specimens of these doves found their 

 way to Europe. 



