Ornithological Notes from Afghanistun. 69 
not of the slaty-under-tail-coverts form. Failing the adoption 
of Eversmann’s title, a new one would be required. 
On examining a large series of the Asiatic representatives 
of our common European Turtledove (Turtur auritus), I find 
that I can only in part concur in Mr. Dresser’s view (‘B. of 
Kurope’) that there are not three species in Asia. 
The form which has the lower tail-coverts, the outer 
margins of the outer pair of rectrices, and the tips of all pure 
white, should, I think, be considered worthy of specific dis- 
tinction ; but all the other birds, which have these parts of 
various shades of ashy-grey, belong, I think, to one species, 
which must stand under the title of Turtur orientalis (Lath.). 
In Japan a large race occurs (Columba gelastes, Temm.) ; and 
in the Indo-Burmese region a generally smaller race is found 
(? 2 C. meena, Sykes), which has the lower tail-coverts of a 
still deeper shade of ashy: but still in point of size both these 
races run into one another; that is to say, some birds from 
Burma (I am writing of adults) are as large, or nearly so, 
as the largest from Japan, and, again, a few Japanese speci- 
mens are as small as the average Burmese ones. 
Captain Vincent Legge states (op. cit.), “‘ Latham unfor- 
tunately does not say what colour the under tail-coverts of 
his T. orientalis were.”” He certainly does not in the ‘ Index 
Ornithologicus ;? but in the ‘General Synopsis of Birds,’ i. 
pt. 2, p. 647, published in 1783, he describes ‘ La tourterelle 
brune de la Chine” as having the “under tail-coverts pale 
cinereous grey.” 
Pallas’s description of his Columba rupicola reads as fol- 
lows:—* C. fusca, plumis gryseo-marginatis, subtus dilutior, 
rectricibus lateralibus extremo cinerascentibus.” ‘There 
can be little doubt to what species this refers ; but Gmelin’s 
description of Ginas nigra, given on the same page, is that 
of a pigeon, and not of a Turtledove at all, although Pallas 
gives the latter title as a synonym of Columba rupicola. 
If my view of the case be considered by ornithologists to 
be the correct one, the synonymy of the species with ashy lower 
tail-coverts will run as follows :— 
