THE COMMON DOVES OF INDIA 129 



sitting on the nest, for if she needs protection, how much 

 more so do her white eggs ? Further, it is my belief 

 that the cock bird takes his turn in the incubation. 



It must not be thought that I am needlessly poking 

 fun at modern biologists. I merely desire to call atten- 

 tion to the unsolved problems that confront us on all 

 sides, and to protest against the dogmatism of biology 

 which declares that the Darwinian theory explains the 

 whole of organic nature. As a matter of fact, it seems 

 to me that the field naturalist cannot but feel that 

 natural selection is turning out rather a failure. 



In conclusion, one more word regarding the red 

 turtle-dove. Its distribution has not been carefully 

 worked out, and what we do know of it is not easy 

 to explain. Hume says that it breeds in all parts of 

 India, but is very capriciously distributed, and he is 

 unable to say what kind of country it prefers, and why 

 it is common in one district and rare in a neigh- 

 bouring one in which all physical conditions appear 

 identical. 



It is very common in the bare, arid, treeless region 

 that surrounds the Sambhur Lake. It is common in 

 some dry, well-cultivated districts, like Etawah, where 

 there are plenty of old mango groves. It is very com- 

 mon in some of the comparatively humid tracts, like 

 Bareilly, and again in the sal jungles of the Kumaun 

 Bhabar and the Nepal Terai. On the other hand, over 

 wide extents of similar country it is scarcely to be seen. 

 Doubtless there is something in its food or manner of 

 life that limits its distribution, but no one has yet been 

 able to make out what this something is. 



