TURTTTR RISORIUS. 703 



guide to the distribution of the bird. I found it common all over the Jaffna peninsula, frequenting even the 

 mangroves on the borders of the great swamp near Ethelumaduvil ; it was also met with on the islands, and 

 on the Erinativoe group, on the coast between Kalmunai Point and Mantotte, and in Manaar Island in great 

 abundance. About Aripu and Salavatori it was more numerous than in the peninsula ; and here Mr. Holds- 

 worth records it as very abundant. I understand it is found near Puttalam as a straggler ; but south of that 

 place, at Chilaw, I only saw T. suratensis. It is never seen at Trincomalie ; but it probably ranges down the 

 coast to Mullaittivu, where the country is open. I did not see it anywhere on the south-east coast ; but I 

 cannot but think that it occurs there about Yala, as Layard says it is found wherever the Euphorbia-trees 

 abound. At present, as far as I know, its range is much the same as the Grey Partridge (Ortygornis pondi- 

 cerianus). Mr. Simpson, who has travelled over all the north-west of Ceylon, both in the interior and on the 

 coast, tells me that it does not extend far inland from Mantotte, but is essentially a bird of the coast-districts. 



Throughout the whole Indian empire it is a common bird in suitable open country ; Jerdon says that it 

 is rare in Malabar, and generally in forest country. The Rev. Dr. Fairbank found it in the plains by the 

 Palanis, but not so abundantly as in the Deccan, where it occurs, he says, everywhere. Following it first, as 

 is my rule, in a north-westerly direction, we find that Messrs. Butler, Adam, and Hume all record it as abun- 

 dant in the Sindh, Guzerat, and Rajpootana divisions ; Captain Butler says that it abounds all over the plains, 

 but does not occur in any numbers in the hills. Beyond the confines of India it extends into Baluchistan, 

 where Mr. Blanford met with it; he was likewise informed by Major St. John that he saw a pair in captivity 

 at Isfahan, said to have been taken from a nest there. Canon Tristram states that it is a permanent resident 

 round the Dead Sea ('Ibis/ 1868, p. 211), and that in spring its numbers are largely increased, when it 

 spreads itself throughout the greater part of Palestine to Mount Tabor, living in small flocks of eight or twelve. 

 Mr. Taylor procured it at Constantinople, and there, as also in some of the Macedonian villages, Messrs. Elwes 

 and Buckley state that it is common. 



All across continental India to the Calcutta district it is of course found, and northwards of that region 

 ascends the Himalayas as high as Mussoorie to breed. In that neighbourhood, says Captain Hutton, it 

 arrives at the end of March, leaving again for the plains in October. Throughout Chota Nagpur it is 

 found, and elsewhere Mr. Ball records it from Bardwan and Orissa north of the Mahanadi river. In 

 Furreedpore Mr. Cripps records it as an abundant permanent resident. I do not know whether it extends from 

 Dacca over into Cachar; but in Pegu, according to the experience of Messrs. Feilden and Oates, it does not 

 appear to be common ; and southward of that province it does not extend into Tenasserim. The Ringed Dove 

 found in China is admitted to be the same as our species. Wallace includes "Chinese Asia" in the distribu- 

 tion of T. riso?-ius ; and Swinhoe identified a specimen from Tokio, in Japan, as belonging to it. Swinhoe records 

 it from villages about the Great Wall, but not from Pekin itself ; and Oustalet remarks that it is found in the 

 north-west provinces of China and on the confines of Mongolia. 



Habits. — In Ceylon dry open country dotted with small trees and clumps of scrub is suitable to the habits 

 of this Pigeon. It also affects isolated groves of mango and other trees and cocoanut and palmyra topes in 

 the Jaffna peninsula ; and in this district I likewise found it in mangrove-jungle. In the island of Manaar it 

 dwells in the thorny scrub abundant near the town, seating itself often on the limbs of the huge baobab-trees, 

 and giving out its melodious love-note. Its voice is much deeper than that of the Spotted Dove, and appeared 

 to my ears to be well rendered by the words coo-hooo-kuk often repeated, the second syllable being deep and 

 long-drawn in tone. Blyth, however, who remarks on its note being very different from that of the Domestic 

 Turtle-Dove, considers that it may be expressed by kookoo-koo, kookoo-koo. It is a pleasing sound when heard 

 in the early morning in the low scrubs lining the north-western coast of Ceylon; and I remember well, having 

 beached my canoe at midnight on the sands beneath the ruins of the Dutch settlement at Aripu, being awoke 

 at dawn, as I lay in the little bamboo " crib " const ructed on the outrigger-spars of the craft, by the soft cooing 

 of the doves and the harsh cackle of the similarly distributed Grey Partridge, with which the low jungle 

 on that coast abounds. 



This Dove has a great partiality for Euphorbia-trees [E. antiquorum), and was considered by Layard to 

 be abundant wher ever this tree grew ; be this as it may, it certainly is usually found about these trees in the 

 north, and I was surprised that I did not hear its note anywhere in the south-east, where the Euphorbia abounds. 



