THE PIGEONS. 177 



for its pale grey head, it was almost an exact 

 miniature of the domestic bird. Like most Turtle- 

 doves, the Red Dove seems to breed at almost any 

 period of the year, but its eggs are not perfectly pure 

 white, but tinted with cream-colour. 



THE SPOTTED DOVE (Turtur suratensis) is the opposite 

 of the Red Dove as regards proportions, having a decid- 

 edly long tail and short wings. It is a little smaller 

 than the Ring-dove. Its colouring is not very easy to 

 describe, but quite unmistakable ; the general hue is 

 pinkish, running into grey on the head ; there is a large 

 black patch dotted with white on the back of the 

 neck, and the wings and back are drab, spotted with 

 pinkish fawn-colour ; the four centre tail-feathers 

 are brown, the rest mostly black with white tips. Cock 

 and hen are exactly alike, but the young are very dull 

 and brown, without any black and white tippet and 

 showing merely traces of the pretty mottling on the wings. 

 The eyelids in old birds are pink-red. 



This Dove is found all over India and Ceylon, and as 

 far east as Manipur ; in Burma it is replaced by the Malay 

 Spotted Dove (Turtur tigrinus), which ranges east to 

 Celebes. This species is less fully and distinctly spotted, 

 and has dark grey eyelids, but otherwise is very 

 similar. 



The Indian Spotted Dove is the common Dove about 

 Calcutta ; it is a familiar garden-bird, quite common 

 even in the town, and very tame, even coming on to 

 verandahs. On my own, I saw one of these Doves attack 

 and buffet a Crow, which fled ignominiously before it. 

 F, GAB 12 



