TUKTIIK SURATENSIS*. 



(THE SPOTTED DOVE.) 



Columba suratensis, Gmel. ed. Syst. Nat. i. p. 778 (1788). 



Turtur suratensis (Gm.), Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1845, xiv. p. 874; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. 



p. 236 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 130 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. 



Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 60 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 479 (1864) ; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 150 ; 



Holdsvv. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 467; Adam, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 390; Ball, ibid. 1874, 



p. 425 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 504 (1875); Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 26, et 1875, 



p. 275 ; Butler & Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 3 ; Fairbank, t. c. p. 262, et 1877, p. 409 ; 



Ball, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 224 ; Cripps, t. c. p. 297. 

 Turtur ceylonensis, Eeichenbach, Tauben, p. 73. 

 Tourterelle de Surat, Sonnerat; The Speckled Dove, Sportsmen in India; Turtle-Love, 



Europeans in Ceylon. Chitroka fachta and CMtla, Hind. ; Chaval-gJmghu, Bengal. ; 



Poda bella guwa, Telugu ; Pulipora, lit. " Spotted Pigeon," Tamil ; Bode of the Gonds; 



Ku-er-pho, Lepchas ; Piap-chu, Bhotias ; Pomia de Cinsa, Portuguese in Ceylon ; 



Mani-praa, lit. " Bead-Dove," Ceylonese Tamils. 

 Kobceya and Allu-kohceya, Sinhalese. 



Adult male and female. Length 11*2 to 11*5 inches ; wing 5-1 to 5-4 ; tail 5'25, lateral feathers 1-5 shorter than 

 ■ the central; tarsus 0-8 to 0'9 ; middle toe 1-05 to 1*1 ; bill to gape 0-65 to 0-7. 



Females are, as a rule, smaller than males. 



Iris mottled pink or reddish outwardly, with a brown inner circle ; orbital skin red ; bill dark leaden, in some slightly 

 suffused with a reddish hue; legs and feet lake-red. 



Head, nape, throat, fore neck, and breast vinaceous ashy (the ruddy tint of the lower parts variable), paling into whitish 

 ashy on the forehead and cheeks, and albescent at the chin ; a black line through the lores and a broad black patch 

 reaching from each side of the hind neck across it, and blending into the smoky ashy brown of the back, scapulars, 

 and tertials, each feather of the collar divergent at the tips and with two white terminal spots, those of the back 

 with rufous-grey spots ; the wing-coverts and tertials with a terminal black spot spreading up the shaft and set 

 off by an isabelline or greyish-red spot on each side ; quills blackish brown ; point of the wing and the greater 

 wing-coverts delicate bluish grey, the feathers on the former part with a black central stripe ; upper tail-coverts 

 and four central tail-feathers brownish ashy, the coverts with a dark terminal spot and a light one at each side 

 of it ; remaining tail-feathers black on the basal half and white on the rest, with the upper surface pervaded with 

 ashy ; lower parts albescent, blending into the ruddy of the breast ; under tail-coverts white, frequently with 

 blackish terminal spots. 



Young. When first hatched the nestling is covered with white hair-like plumes above, and with slightly rufescent 

 feathers beneath. Immature birds have the feathers of the breast and fore neck narrowly tipped with blackish 

 grey. 



Obs. The Ceylonese Spotted Dove was separated by Eeichenbach from the Indian on account of its smaller size. 

 I find, on comparing my specimens with others from India in the British Museum, that the wings of the latter do, 

 as a rule, average larger than those of insular birds ; but the difference is not sufficient, in a bird of the size of 

 this Dove, to warrant our separating the Ceylon race. I find, for example, a specimen from the North-west 



* This Dove, which belongs to Bonaparte's section of the Turtle-Doves (Tigrini), differs from the last in the spotted 

 character of the neck-patch feathers, which are furcate at the tips ; the tail is likewise graduated. 



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