DWARF OR RUDDY TURTLE. 



S3 



Length. — About 9 inches. Shape, long, but 

 beautifully proportioned. 



Colouring. — The adult male is vinous or brick- 

 red; the back, rump, upper tail coverts, under wing 

 coverts, and flanks grey. The head is a very 

 lovely shade of pale ash grey, a rich black collar 

 round the hinder part of the neck dividing the grey 

 from the red. The long wing quills are blackish, 

 the eye dark brown, the bill black, the legs and 

 feet purplish red. The hen is quite different to the 

 male bird. Her general colour is soft dun, the 

 lower parts vinous grey. There is a black collar 

 as in the cock, but edged above with whitish grey. 



WILD LIFE. 



This dove feeds largely on the ground, either 

 in open fields or under the shade of the trees. It 

 frequents large groves in cultivated districts, and 



Dwarf or Ruddy Turtle. 



■ PMo by Mr. D. Selh-Smith. 

 From The Avicultural Magazine. 



is frequently caught and offered for sale in India, 

 but seldom finds its way to England, most of those 

 for disposal being aviary-bred. It is very difficult 

 to approach in its wild state, and keeps to the tree 

 and bamboo jungle. 



LIFE IN C.VPTIVITV. 



The little Dwarf turtle is quite one of the nicest 

 doves to keep. It is so small and dainty, and the 

 colouring very charming. Imagine a trim little 

 dove with a soft grey head, a black collar, and 

 warm brick-coloured body, with black wing quills 

 and whitish grey tail, and there you have a cock 

 bird ; and the hen is no less pretty with her 

 plumage of real "dove colour" and soft dark eyes. 



It is such an advantage to be able to tell the 

 sexes easily, for as a rule doves are so much alike 

 that it is only after years that one can single out 



the se.\ of a bird with fair certainty, and even then 

 there is sometimes a little doubt, for one may be 

 misled by the birds themselves. I remember two 

 Bleeding Heart pigeons that for long took me in 

 b}' their loving ways to each other, and at last I 

 found to mv surprise that they were both cocks. 



The Ruddy Turtle was first kept at the Zoo in 

 1862, and two years later it bred there. It is an 

 easy dove to breed so far, but not so easy to rear 

 the young ones to maturity ; there is a vof'd of 

 difference in getting doves to nest and getting 

 them to rear the young successfully. A large 

 consignment of Dwarf turtles was received at 

 Cologne in 1895 ; I have never known any 

 quantitv offered for sale in England. 



For some time I had to be content with two cocks 

 for which I paid about 8/- each ; it seemed no use 

 hoping for a hen, for the natives did not seem to 

 send any over. But after waiting for some time 

 my chance came ; a gentleman returning from 

 India brought back four hen birds, and wrote offer- 

 ing me them for 15/- each. I bought two, and 

 the other two birds were each sold to a different 

 owner. Out of the four hen birds only one (one 

 of mine), I beheve, survived for long ; the other 

 three died. So now it rested with my one little 

 hen to restore the breed of the Ruddy Turtle in 

 England, for I did not know of a single other hen 

 bird at that time in the country. My birds soon 

 nested and had some young ones, which I hoped at 

 first were hens, but I was doomed to disappoint- 

 ment — they were all cocks. 



When the little doves are almost ready to leave 

 the nest they are very pretty indeed, so small and 

 innocent-looking, dun colour, like the hen, with 

 white foreheads, but without the black collar, and 

 with bright dark eyes, and light-coloured beaks, 

 like very pale flesh colour. After a time the collar 

 comes, but if the young bird is a cock the change 

 of colour in the plumage does not come till long 

 after the dark ring band has appeared. 



Eventually I bred a hen bird, so having a second 

 cock I had now two unrelated pairs. From these I 

 was able to supply young birds to aviculturalists 

 all over the country ; these birds in turn bred again, 

 and the Dwarf turtle is once more established in 

 England, much to my pleasure. 



The eggs are white and two in number. Latterly 

 the two pairs of birds I have now have not bred so 

 many young ones as they should have done. The 

 young birds do well till just out of the nest, when 

 the parents desert them, and probably wish to start 

 another nest again. In this case it is little one 

 can do for them, and the poor little things get 

 weaker and eventually die. This dove seems to 

 stand our climate well, and does not appear to feel 

 the cold. It breeds many times during the year, 



