is



As soon as I got my pair home, I removed all the cut and

broken feathers, and put them in a good sized aviary containing

some foreign finches. In a few weeks their new feathers had

grown, and they could fly quite well. During the time they

were unable to do so, I was at home, and had a good opportunity

of watching their movements on the ground. When not hiding

in a snug corner I made for them, lined with hay for warmth at

night and for sleeping purposes, behind a bundle of pea-sticks,

they were running very quickly about the aviary, bobbing up

their tails “Blackbird fashion,” picking up tit-bits on the floor

and visiting the seed-dish (containing white millet and canary

seed) and uttering now and then a little coo. They have been

shy and timid birds from the first, and still are ; trying yet to get

out of sight as soon as approached. Since they have regained

their powers of flight, they have abandoned their sleeping

corner on the ground, and spend nearly all their time on the top

of a box and branch that shelters it, fixed up close against the

ceiling of the aviary. I have put a wicker nest, basin shape,

lined with a little nesting material, in the box, and have also

made a nest in the pea-sticks close by, hoping they will

eventually adopt one or the other and breed. So far they seem

much too timid to do so ; but when they get more accustomed

to aviary-life their timidity may leave them and the chances of

breeding be greater.


With regard to plumage, they resemble in several respects

the Bronze-winged Pigeon fPhaps chalcoptera ). They have bronze

spots on the wings as this Dove has, and also salmon-coloured

feathers under the wings, visible when flying. The neck has

very pretty mottled markings. The sexes are much alike in

plumage, but there is a difference in the tint—the cock vinaceous

and the hen ashen—this seems to be the distinctive mark

between the sexes, and, if correct, five out of the eight I saw

were cocks.


The only note I have heard from my pair is a little coo,

uttered when one bird is alone and calling the other, or when

they are startled and are about to fly off to some secluded part of

the aviary. They seem exceedingly fond of each other and are

scarcely ever seen apart; they feed together, fly together, sleep

together and are, in fadt, inseparable.


I do not know if any English aviculturist has been

successful in breeding this pretty little Dove, but they have been

bred in France, and in Germany (by Russ) too.



