230



Correspondence, Noles, etc.


THE PLUMED GROUND DOVE.



Sir, _I want to ask you how to keep a pair of Lophophaps plumijera,


which I bought the other day. I have them at present in a longish cage

which I keep half covered for they seem very timid, and give them canary

and millet seed. I have put sand and limestone at the bottom of the cage

and a handful of hay on which they usually huddle at night. The upper

part of their beak is very long and widens at the point. Never having

seen other specimens of this Dove before I do not know whether this is

natural or whether their beak has grown unnaturally. I have put a cuttle¬

fish bone in the cage on which they could rub their beak if they chose. I

should like to put them in the aviary or in the bird-room where they would

have more room to run about in, but want to know whether they would

agree with other doves and other birds. I have several doves, the Indian

Green Wing, the Diamond Dove (both these have nested and brought up

young ones), the Passerine Dove, the Afra, and the Talpacoti. I have also

a fine pair of Lophotes, but these are as yet in a cage.


Is th & plumifera delicate, and does it require heat ?


GuiqiA Tommasi.


The following reply has been sent to the Countess Baldelli.


Lophophaps is so rare in the English market, that very few

aviculturists here have had any experience of it as an aviary' bird. It was

bred in our Zoological Gardens in 1S95 ; but unfortunately I do not possess

the volume of ‘ the Proceedings’ for that year; so that I am unable to tell

you how the birds were kept.


Being natives of the hot sandy plains of the interior, where they

bask in the intense heat of the sun, nesting in a hollow scratched in the

ground under the shelter of herbage, they would probably require a warm

sunny aviary.


I should be afraid to associate them with any of the small doves of

the New World, most of which are very pugnacious; nor do I think they

would be safe with Green-winged Doves ; which, though generally

apathetic, will at times drive about doves of twice their own bulk.


If any doves are delicate, the Plumed Doves ought to be: if I had a

pair I should keep them in an indoor aviary and turn out all other

doves. I have not found any dove quarrelsome with birds of the other

Orders, but finches will sometimes pluck out their feathers to line their

nests with.


I can find no mention of a distorted upper mandible as a natural

character in Lophophaps; I think if such had been the case, it would have

been noted in the British Museum Catalogue.


I am very' sorry to be unable to give you more definite answers to



