THE



79



Hvucultural fllbac$a3tne,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCI ETY.



New Series —VOL. VI. — NO. 3 .—All rights reserved. JANUARY, 1908.


THE MADAGASCAR TURTLE-DOVE.


Turtur picturcitus.


By T. H. Newman, F.Z.S.


I have adopted the name Madagascar instead of the usual

one of Mauritian for this bird, as the former island besides being

so much larger is possibly the ouly true habitat of this species.

It occurs however in Reunion, Mauritius, the Seychelles and

Chagos Islands, but there is some doubt as to whether it has not

been introduced into these latter Islands. Edward Newton,

writing on the land birds of the Seychelles Archipelogo, in Ibis,

1867, p. 346, says, “I also shot a young Turtur picturatus, and

saw another. This bird is called ‘ Pigeon,’ or 1 Tourterelle rouge,’

and was introduced, it is said, some few years ago by a late

Inspector of Police. It is not very common, and I saw it no¬

where else.” On the other hand, Ridgway, in Pr. U. S. National

Museum, XVIII., p.p. 512, 513 (1895), describes a female from

Mahd (Seychelles), as being altogether paler than an adult male

from Madagascar, and proposed to separate it under the name of

abbotti. He adds a note that Dr. Abbot is positive that the Sey¬

chelles’ bird is not an introduced species, but a native of the

Islands. To which our member, Mr. J. Nicholl, naively replies in

Ibis , 1906, p. 707, ‘‘I did not see the so-called Turtur abbotti on

these islands (Seychelles). Mr. Ridgway proposes to separate T.

abbotti from T. picturatus, which was supposed to have been

introduced, as he says that his specimen, an adult female, ‘ differs

so decidedly in coloration from an adult male of true T. pictura¬

tus from Madagascar.’ Surely one would expect the female to

differ from the male even to a marked degree.” The last remark



