710 TURTUR TRANQUEBARICUS. 



To the eastward of the Bay it is replaced by the larger darker form already alluded to, and which is 

 recorded from the Irrawaddy delta, Rangoon, and Teuasserim. The Pegu specimens appear to belong 4o the 

 Indian race (Str. Feath. 1875, p. 165). 



Habits. — As already remarked, this pretty little Dove is capricious in its selection of country, there being 

 something in its food or mode of life which restricts its distribution, but which naturalists do not seem to be 

 acquainted with. In some districts, such as Sambhur, it is fond of arid places, and in others, such as Furreed- 

 pore, the converse is the case, for Mr. Cripps remarks that it frequents woods more than either of the two last 

 species. Its food mainly consists of grass-seeds ; but when grain is procurable it must levy heavy contributions 

 on it, as do all its congeners. 



Jerdon writes of it as affecting "large groves of trees near cultivation, often feeding under the shade of 

 trees, but also betaking itself to fields, grass-downs, and bare spots near rivers and tanks. Its coo is short, 

 deep, and grunt-like." Like other Doves, it thrives in confinement, and will, according to Blyth, breed in an 

 aviary. 



Nidification. — Layard does not mention at what season he procured his birds, which, it will be perceived, 

 were nesting; but I conclude it was about April, as at that season the plain he speaks of is dried up. 

 Mr. Hume writes: — "I have always found the nests at or near the extremities of the lower boughs of very 

 trees, at heights of from 8 to 15 feet from the ground, and laid across any two or three horizontal 

 branchlets. As a rule the nests are excessively light structures, composed of a few slender sticks or grass-stems, 

 or both, so loosely and sparsely put together that the eggs can generally be espied from below through the 

 bottom of the nest." The eggs are two in number, and more elongated than the other species of Indian Doves' 

 eggs, glossy, and generally of an ivory-white colour. They average in size T02 by 0-8 inch. 



