SPOTTED DOVE 205 



pale fulvous-brown instead of vinous, and the breast-feathers are fringed 

 with narrow edges of pale fulvous. 



Colours of soft parts. Same as in the male, but the irides are pale brown 

 and the feet a paler duller red. 



Young, after the first moult, acquire a certain amount of vinous tinge 

 on the breast and flanks, and have the neck-patch represented by a few 

 feathers with black bases which show through; the scapulars and outer 

 lesser wing-coverts become streaked with dark brown and occasionally the 

 vinous spots begin to appear. 



The Ceylon bird, as may be seen from the measurements given above, 

 is very much smaller than the northern bird and somewhat smaller even 

 than the southern Indian one, but I can trace no difference between the 

 two forms in plumage. 



If divided from the northern form on account of the smaller measure- 

 ments the Ceylon form would bear the name Streptopelia suratensis ceylon- 

 ensis (Rchnb., Syn. Av., Columbariae, Novit., t. 253b (1851).) 



Birds from Cachar Plains and Sylhet are intermediate between the 

 Indian Spotted Dove and the Burmese form, whilst those from the North 

 Cachar HUls and Manipur are almost typical tigrina. Birds from Gilgit 

 are very pale in their plumage both above and below. 



Distribution. There is little to add to Blanford's summary of this 

 bird's habitat. He says that it is found "throughout the whole of India 

 and Ceylon; most common in well-wooded countries, rare in drier regions, 

 and wanting in desert tracks. This Dove is found throughout the Himalayas 

 up to 7,000 ft. and in Gilgit and Ladak. (The statement in the British 

 Museum Catalogue that it inhabits Yarkand is a mistake). To the east- 

 ward it is found in Assam, Cachar, and Manipur, but is replaced in Burma 

 by T. tigrinus." 



Throughout Assam Dr. H. N. Coltart and myself found only suratensis, 

 and never came across tigrina, yet in North Cachar I found this latter 

 to be the common form, whilst some birds sent me from Manipur 

 were intermediate but leaning more to the Burmese than the Indian 

 form. In Chittagong and the Chittagong hill-tracks also the former is the 



one met with. j- o- j » 



Captain Maiden reported it as " pretty common in the south of Smd, 

 but it probably only enters this part of India in exceptionally wet seasons 

 as no one else seems to have noticed it there. Both " Eha " and Dewar 

 state that this Dove is never found on the island of Bombay though both 

 the Little Brown Dove and Ring-Dove swarm. 



Nidification. The Spotted Dove breeds from the level of the plains 

 up to at least 8,000 ft. in the Himalayas and possibly even at higher elevations 

 than this. In the plains it breeds practically all the year round, and m the 

 higher portions of its hill-range from March to September. In Bengal 

 undoubtedly March to June and, again, September and October, are the 

 principal breeding-months, but Cripps found them breeding m Furredpore 

 from November to May also. I think, however, that durmg the height 

 of the rainy season most birds stop breeding, though I once found a Spotted 

 Dove seated on her very exposed nest in August, during unusually heavy 

 rain which had soaked her, the nest, and all its surrounchngs through and 

 through. In Kumaon, Thompson found them breeding from February to 

 October • in the Konkan, Vidal got nests from October to April, and Cardew 

 says that it nests in the Neilgherries from February to September. 



