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on Breeding the Tambourine Dove.



which I had a struggle to recover him. I replaced both birds in

the nest, and they appeared little worse for the adventure.


On the 8th the older and stronger nestling was again

prowling about the floor, therefore I did not trouble to disturb it;

the other still remained in the nest and seemed none the worse

for its fall, but on the 9th it was dead ; the following is the short

description which I made from it before forwarding it to the

Natural History Museum :—Colouring of upper parts largely

bronze-brown, but the feathers barred with buff and black;

flights reddish-chestnut; tail chiefly vinous brown, the outer¬

most feathers white. Forehead and broad eyebrow-streak buff;

the feathers at sides of crown standing in curved rows so as to

produce a sort of divided crest, buff-brownish ; ear-coverts and

cheeks leaden grey, the former apparently narrowly barred

white and buff, but this appearance is probably partly due to the

sheaths still remaining 011 the feathers at this part of the head ;

sides of neck, throat and breast bufflsh-brown, with narrow

blackish bars ; abdomen white ; bill dull black ; feet dark leaden

grey with a faint sub-tint of flesh-colour : the eye was too sunken

to describe.


In his account of “ Birds collected by Dr. W. E. Abbott in

the Kilimanjaro Region, East Africa” (Proc. Uu. States Nat. Mus.

Vol. XXVIII. p. 843) Prof. H. C. Oberholser describes the

immature Tambourine Dove compared with the adult as follows :—

“ Upper surface of the body more rufesceut ; forehead greyish,

slightly tinged with tawny ; crown washed, the back and rump

barred, with rusty ; wing-coverts and secondaries duller, as well as

rather paler, with mottlings and some bars of dark brown and

tawnjr, the secondaries with a dark subterminal bar ; sides of the

head shaded with ashy and brownish ; anterior lower parts more

or less barred with dark brown and ochraceons ; lower tail-coverts

with tips and sometimes bars of tawny.” This would probably be

an intermediate stage between the nestling and adult plumage.


After it had left the nest I, on several occasions, noticed

the young bird screaming to its mother for food and flapping its

wings, but I never saw her feeding it ; she used to run away into

the thicket of dead branches with the young one waddling after

her, but whether she fed it when out of sight from the other end



