So



Mr. T. H. Newman,



is borne out by my birds, as is shown below. Reichenow has

more recently described a Turtle-dove from Diego Garcia

(Chagos Islands), S.E. of the Seychelles as differing from the

Madagascar bird by being much darker and having the crown

slightly washed with vinous, he calls it chuni. So it would seem,

even if it has been introduced it is already tending to split up

into races.


This very interesting and beautiful dove forms the type of

a small group of Turtle-doves confined to the Madagascarian

sub-region on which Salvadori bestowed the sub-generic name of

Homopelia. They differ very considerably both in appearance

and habits from the typical Turtle-doves; at first sight they seem

to lack the collar which in some form or other appears in all the

Turtles, but on close inspection of the adult birds, the bases of

the feathers on the back and sides of the neck will be found to

be black, having the ends greyish vinous, with distinct green

reflections in the newly moulted feathers. These feathers are

distinctly bifurcated, though not perhaps quite so much so as in

the Necklaced and Senegal groups, this fact is not mentioned in

the Museum Catalogue of Pigeons, though it was so well known

to Temminck that he took the trouble to give a separate figure of

one of these feathers on his plate of the bird (PI. Col. 242, 1823).


I11 shape this is the least graceful of any Turtle-dove that

I have seen, being of a sturdy build with relatively short tail and

longish legs, which points to the fact that it spends much time

on the ground. I think this is quite borne out by my birds; its

handsome plumage however quite deserves for it the name of

“ Painted,” by which it is often known. The head is grey, the

wings brown, with the scapular region beautifully tinged with

rich vinous purple ; the breast is vinous gradually fading to

white on the under-tail coverts ; lateral tail feathers dark gray

with ashy band at the end, in my male bird the inner web of the

outermost feathers on each side is almost white, but in the female

it is ashy. The central tail feathers are brown. The bill is livid

grey purplish on cere and on edges of gape ; narrow carmine skin

round eye; iris brown passing into crimson on the outer edge.

The pupil is nearly round in a dull light, but contracts to a narrow

oval, becoming almost a slit in bright sunlight. I have never



