THE SCALY AND PICUI OR STEEL-BARRED DOVES. 



6i 



Parson Finch talking in his own language to the 

 dove all day long. 



My first hen Diamond dove was bought in 1899, 

 and cost me 10/6; after it moulted the feathers 

 turned from grey to browny drab. I have noticed 

 this changing also in the Picui dove — that after the 

 moult the colour is often different. In 1900 I 

 bought a fine cock Diamond, very dark grey, and 

 the skin round the eye coral-red, but 1 never 

 succeeded in rearing any young ones. 



THE SCALY DOVE. 



[Scardafella squamosa). 



Habitat. — Brazil, Venezuela, and Columbia. 



Length. — About 8 inches. Shape, slender, with 

 long tail. 



Colouring. — Adult male — Upper parts greyish 

 brown ; lower parts white, with a pinkish tinge 

 on the sides and lower neck and also on the breast ; 

 each feather edged with a crescentic bar of black, 

 except the under-tail coverts, which are pure white. 

 The wings are light brown (also edged with black 

 erescentic bars), the long' quills brown ; the tail 

 is brown and black, the black feathers having 

 broad white tips, the bill is brownish black, the 

 feet flesh colour, the iris carmine red. The hen is 

 similar to the cockbird. 



WILD LIFE. 



Mr. Taylor, in an article on Birds of the West 

 Indies, tells us how the bush and savannah in the 

 ' neighbourhood of Ciudad Bolivar swarm with little 

 ground doves. Both the Scaly and the Talpacoti 

 dove are found there, but the latter in more abun- 

 dance than the former. 



Mr. Forbes, whilst riding in Brazil, several times 

 flushed little coveys of the Scaly dove, "which rose 

 up from the road and took refuge in the nearest 

 tree. Usually these parties consisted of about 

 four; when rising they make, apparently with their 

 wings, a curious rattling noise, whence they are 

 called by the Brazilians 'Rola Cascavel,' cascavel 

 meaning a rattle, and being also the name applied 

 by the natives to the Brazilian Rattlesnake." 



LIFE IN CAPTIVITY. 



I purchased a pair of these little doves in 1903. 

 The price asked for the Scalys at first was 25/- 

 a pair, but I fancy they did not sell very quickly. 

 Eventually I gave 35/- for a pair each of Scaly 

 and Cinnamon doves. The former are strange- 

 looking little birds, something the shape of a Zebra 

 dove, with a fairly long tail. Like the Zebra dove, 

 too, the Scaly seems rather liable to suffer from an 

 overgrown beak, .and possibly not only overgrown, 

 but twisted, for when one mandible gets longer 

 than the other it is impossible for the two portions 

 of the beak to fit properly in position. 



Of all small operations to be performed on birds 

 I think I find beak trimming the most unpleasant. 

 In these two pairs of doves I have just mentioned 

 two out of the four birds wanted their beaks cut- 

 ting when I got them. Sometimes this over- 

 growth is a sign of weakness, sometimes of old 

 .age. At the present time I should not care to add 

 any bird to my collection with this failing, for even 

 when once cut the beak will grow long again. 



I have not much to record about my own Scaly 

 doves, for I did not much care for them nor even 

 think them very pretty ; but Dr. Greene in his 

 "Notes on Cage Birds" is evidently a great 

 admirer of this little dove, for he gives a long- 

 account of its nesting, besides praising its appear- 

 ance. He speaks of it as quick and lively in its 

 movenients, ever on the alert, very quiet with other 

 birds, and that it has a sonorous and really musical 

 call — "Roo-koo-koo." 



Dr. Greene considers the Scaly dove fairly hardy. 

 He says the breeding season in England may be 

 said to be from the middle of May ; the hen 

 arranges the nest, whilst the cock carries her up 

 the material; incubation lasts 16 or 17 days, both 

 birds sharing' in the work of sitting and feeding. 

 The young do well if the weather is warm and 

 genial, but if cold and damp it is doubtful if they 

 are reared. The young birds differ considerably 

 from the old birds until after their first moult ; 

 their colour till then is a pale ashen-grey, very 

 slightly marked with the "scaly" tips of the 

 feathers, so marked a feature in the plumage of 

 the old birds. 



Dr. Greene says these doves in captivity live 

 principally on white millet, with a little hemp and 

 canary ; they are fond of pecking about in the 

 grass, and eat the tips of it and probably many 

 minute insects at the same time. 



The Scaly dove has been kept at the Zoo as far 

 back as 1867. I believe it was bred in England 

 for the first time quite recently. After keeping my 

 pair of birds over a year I was still so little in love 

 with them that I sold them for 8/6. 



PICUI OR STEEL-BARRED DOVE. 



(ColumbuJa Picui). 



Habitat.— South Brazil, Paraguay, Argentine, 

 Chili, and Bolivia. 



Length. — About 7 inches. Shape, very well 

 proportioned. 



Colouring. — General colour grey. Soft grey on 

 back and head, shading into almost white on the 

 face and breast. A steel-blue bar runs high up 

 across the wing, but as this band is very dark it 

 does not do much to lighten up the colour of the 

 bird. The feet are purple-red, the bill black, the 



