T. II. Newman — The Rosy-grey Turtle-dove and others. 103


white in the outer web, and it is entirely beyond all probability that

these features which are the normal ones of the genus should have been

derived from the lengthened tail and the blackish outer web of the

outer tail-feathem of T. douraca , features entirely unique. Besides,

there are wild species which in these characters are identical with the

domestic birds, without differing more from it in other respects than

does the wild T. douraca .”


And lastly, Dr. Hartert, Nov. Zool. s xxiii, pp. 78-80, 1916, has gone

very fully into the matter, and shows that all previous writers quoted

by Linne were merely acquainted with the domestic bird, which they

sujwosed to have come from India ; he then gives details to show that

the Barbary Dove cannot be derived from the wild Indian one, but that,

on the contrary, it agrees very closely with roseogrisea of N.E. Africa.


To return to the birds deposited in the Zoological Gardens, they

certainly so closely resembled the tame bird that they could very easily

pass for small, brightly coloured, Barbary Doves. I was most anxious

to hear their notes, which would have quite settled the question of

origin. I paid them several visits at close quarters, but not a syllable

would they utter, and I suspect them of being hens, the one there now

certainly seems to be one. Dr. Hartert quoted that S. roseogrisea has

the same call as that of our domestic race, though he tells me he has

not heard it himself. I think it has now been quite proved that this

African bird is the ancestor of our Barbary Dove, to which Linne gave

the name of C. risoria. The name itself while most appropriate for the

domesticated bird would be quite misleading for the Indian species

which does not laugh !


It is very greatly to be hoped that more specimens of the Rose-grey

Turtle-dove may be shortly imported. It is a very common bird in

the Egyptian Soudan. Mr. A. L. Butler records, Ibis, p. 359, 1905,

that it is quite one of “ the commonest Doves in the Soudan ”. He

found it “ in thousands round the wells of Bara, in Kordofan ”, while

the Hon. N. C. Rothschild and Mr. A. F. R. Woolaston, writing on birds

from Shendi on the Nile, midway between the Albara river and

Khartoum, Ibis, p. 25, 1902, say that it “ was exceedingly common.

Upwards of fifty might sometimes be seen sitting in one of the bigger

trees near the river ; it was also well distributed all over the desert,



