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From this summary of my general difficulties in correct

identification of Doves, I pass to one or two particular enquiries,

in case any member of our Society can help me. I should like,

first, to get any information about the Emerald Dove (Chalcopelia

afraj to which I have already alluded. More than three years

ago I got a pair of Doves as “ Spotted Doves from Brazil,” from

a great importer. The hen survives now in lovely plumage. They

came with various African Doves, and certainly correspond with

Eevaillant’s illustration of the “ Emerald,” and with a stuffed

specimen in the Natural History Museum, but the spots on their

wings have a purple, not a green, gloss; and their tails, which

Eevaillant describes as “ ires courte et orrondee ” are certainly

neither short nor appreciably rounded. Eevaillant, too,

describes his Emerald Dove as being one-third less than the

Common Turtle : a fairly accurate description of this bird ;

while much smaller Doves which I have, on the Continent,

seen labelled “ Emerald,” are not half the size of the European

Turtle.


Then I have for years possessed a great favourite : a tiny,

short-tailed and short-legged Dove, which came in the same lot

as the bird I have described, with Tambourines and others. The

vendor sent it as a Schlegel’s Dove, of which it is not half the

size; and when I repudiated this name for it, said it must then

be an Emerald Dove, and came from S. W. Africa. I put no

great confidence in his knowledge : for when he advertised

Emerald Doves, since, and I wrote for some, he only sent me

small Brazilian Zenaidas, which I know well, and sent back.

This little bird is of a generally bronzy and vinaceous colour, has

a bluish head, red beak and feet, and tiny brilliant green spots

on the wings. Its figure resembles Eevaillaut’s illustration of

what he fantastically calls the Columbe Caille. I have never

seen but this one, and two others which came with it in

miserable condition and soon died.


There is another Dove about which I would say a word.

In our own Zoological collection, at Regent’s Park, it is called

the Vinaceous Turtle—not a very appropriate name for a bird

whose hues are chiefly pink and blue. It is the size of a

Barbary Turtle, hardy and attractive. All over the Continent

it is called the Senegal Turtle : not inaptly, as it seems common

in Western Africa. Eevaillant has a charming illustration of

it as Tozirterelle Maillee, from the fancied resemblance of its

breast - markings to mail. Why it should have been named

Vinaceous by our Zoological Society, I should like to know.



