40


and therefore, one would imagine, almost as fat-producing. I am not

striving to throw a doubt on the fact that honey is bad for captive Tuis, for

that seems fairly well established, but only wondering why it should be so,


I do not share Mr. Perkins' high opinion of egg as a food for soft-

bills. It is certainly very nourishing, but I fancy it is not always easily

digested. And there is such a thing as giving too many mealworms.


"Will Mr. Button kindly tell us which are the birds that do better in a

cage than in an aviary ? I have never found this to be so with any which I

have kept.


I have heard it hinted that if the sinaller Warblers are to be kept at

all they must be fed largely on gentles. But, as it has been well expressed,

" a bird which can only be kept on gentles is not worth keeping at all."


Horatio R. Fii^IvMEr,


[Further correspondence on this subject of " Food for Soft-billed Birds" is invited. Th^

greatest diversity of treatment prevails, and all members who have successfully

kept the rarer or more delicate species, whether British or foreign, are urged to

state the food which they have found to be, in their experience, the best. — Bd.] -



THE NOMENCIvATURE OF FOREIGN DOVES.


Sir, — Considerable confusion exists with regard to the correct names

of many foreign Doves.


In 1894 I obtained a pair of Turtles, the name of which I was

ignorant of at the time. I subsequently found that at the Zoological Gardens

the species was labelled " Vinaceous Turtle-dove." I, therefore, since then

have always referred to these Doves by the above name.


This pair has been in my possession since the spring of the above

year, and I have sent their young to aviculturists in various parts of the

country, always under the above name ; so that the species is known thus

to several aviculturists.


Another, somewhat larger bird with a black ring on its neck, some-

what resembling a large Barbary Dove, has for years been named the

" Cambayan Turtle " by the Zoological Society.


It appears however that the above learned Society have now dis-

covered that they have been confusing the two species ; and they are now

labelling the two species vice-versa. My birds are, therefore, Cambayau

Turtle-doves fT. senegalensis) .


The true Tiutur vinaceus is considerably larger than the Barbary

Dove, which species it closely resembles, although somewhat browner in

colour. It is often confounded with the Half-Collared Turtle (Turtur

semitorquatusj , a species slightly smaller than the Barbary Dove. *


The true Turtur senegalensis has no ring on the neck. It is of a

ruddy pink hue, with small black niarkings on the throat. The rump and

wing coverts are of a delicate bluish grey.


D. Sfth-SmiTh. .


* This is certainly incorrect : for Covnit Salvadori (the greatest authority on the

Cohimboz, gives the total length of Turtur semiforquaius as 12.4 inches, and that or

T. rixorius as about 10 inches. These measurements are borne out by the skins iii the

British Museum and specimens which I have kept of both.— A. G. B.



