GEOPELIINJS. 51 



1314. Macropygia ruficeps. The Little Malay CucJcoo-Dove. 



Columba ruficeps, Temm. PI. Col. pi. 561 (1835). 

 Macropygia amboinensis, apud Blyth, Cat. p. 234, nee Linn. 

 Macropygia ruficeps, Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. xxxix, pt. 2, p. 331 ; 



myth, Birds Barm. p. 146 ; Wardl. Rams. Ibis, 1890, p. 225 ; 



Satoadori, Cat. B. M. xxi, p. 360. 

 Macropygia assimilis, Hume, S. F. ii, p. 441 (1874) ; Walden in 



Blyttis Birds Sunn. p. 146 ; Wardl. Rams. Ibis, 1877, p. 468 ; 



Humefy Dav. S. F. vi, p. 420; Hume, Cat. no. 791 ter; Oates, 



B. B. ii, p. 296 ; Salvadori, Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) v, p. 618. 



Coloration. Male. Head pale cinnamon, growing darker on the 

 nape and sides o neck and passing into the dull purplish brown, 

 richly glossed with metallic-green changing to lilac, of the lower 

 neck and upper back ; rest of upper parts, wings, and tail brown, 

 wing-coverts edged with ferruginous red ; rump and upper tail- 

 coverts rusty brown, middle four rectrices the same, outer rectrices 

 bright rufous with a broad, rather irregular black band near the 

 end ; lower surface of body light cinnamon, whitish on the chin 

 arid throat, and with broad white tips to some of the pectoral 

 feathers ; wing-lining and inner edges of quills towards the base 

 ferruginous red. 



Females are smaller and duller above, there is no metallic gloss 

 on the upper back ; lower parts browner than in the male ; feathers 

 of fore neck and breast black with rufous tips, appearing as if 

 spotted with black. 



Young birds resemble females, but have dark edges to the feathers 

 of the crown and pale edges on the upper back. 



Bill pale brown ; iris pearly white (purplish or brown in the 

 young), orbital skin pale blue ; legs and feet brownish pink or 

 red. 



Length of males about 13; tail 6'75 ; wing 6; tarsus '75'; 

 bill from gape '9 : of females the tail is about 6 ; wing 5*5. 

 Javan specimens are smaller than Burmese, but do not differ in 

 any other way. 



Distribution. The higher hill-forests of Southern Burma, the 

 Karen Hills near Toungoo, Kollidoo, and Mooleyit, east of Moul- 

 mein ; also the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. 



Habits. This is described by Davison as a shy bird, keeping to 

 dense forest in small parties of five or six, and having a peculiar 

 quadrisyllable call repeated several times. 



Subfamily GEOPELIINJE. 



The genus Geopelia is distinguished from all other Indian Doves 

 by having 14 tail-feathers ; it has neither ambiens muscle nor 

 intestinal caeca, and thus agrees with the Treronince, to which it 

 was referred by Garrod ; but it possesses an oil-gland, and it has 

 a bare elongate tarsus' and peculiar plumage entirely destitute of 

 metallic lustre. 



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