on the Siamese Collared Turtle-Dove . 323


these birds, a male, lived right 011 to June of this year, when it

died and was most unfortunately so mutilated by rats that it was

impossible to preserve it, though I had particularly requested

that, whatever happened, its skin should be saved. I am told

that all three birds were just alike, though I never saw the other

two, but for the last two years or so I kept the survivor under

notice. I am fortunate enough to have an excellent coloured

drawing by Mr. Goodchild, drawn from the living bird soon after

my attention was called to it. I have also the only surviving

young one, a hen, bred from this particular bird, but as its

mother was a Half-collared Turtle-dove ( Turtur semitorquatus ),

the characteristics of its father are not reproduced.


My reason for thinking that the Collared Turtle of Burma

differs from the typical bird and its known representative, lies

in the fact that the Burmese bird possesses most remarkable

yellow rings of bare skin round its ej ? es, which are most

conspicuous in the living bird. I do not know any other Turtle¬

dove of any species whatever that has yellow round the eye. I

had hoped to have been able to compare the plumage with birds

from India etc., which the lamentable destruction of the specimen

now renders impossible. I am informed by those who know the

Collared Turtle-dove well in India, where it is a common bird

and not uufrequently kept in cages, that there it has no such

yellow bare skin, in fact in this respect it seems to resemble the

domestic Barbary Dove. I have also looked up numerous

references, and in every case when the colour of the orbital skin

is given (excluding the two localities Burma and China,

mentioned below), it is described as “ Dower eyelid slaty grey ”

(this is the typical form from Yarkand) Scully, “ Stray Feathers ”

IV. p. 17S. “Orbital skin bluish white” (Eastern Bengal)

Cripps, “ Stray Feathers,” VII. p. 297, and again “ Orbital skin

bluish white,” (Ceylon), Degge “ Birds of Ceylon,” p. 702, also

“ Orbital skin whitish” (Palestine), Dresser “ Birds of Europe”

VII. p-5i. Iu the original drawing from which fig. 2 in the

plate has been traced, which was taken from the type of Titrtur

douraca, the skin round the eye is coloured greyish white, with

no sign of yellow. This is a native drawing, and great care has

•evidently been taken, in this wonderful series of drawings of



