222 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



Occasionally, however, it is rather better made, more cup-shaped, and with 

 other materials, such as grass, roots, tendril and moss roots intermixed, and, 

 according to Hume, it is sometimes lined regularly with grass. In diameter 

 it may be anything between some five and seven inches, but the shape is very 

 irregular and often a couple of inches longer one way than the other. 



The nest is placed, in most cases, in thick bushes — ^prickly ones are 

 especially affected — cane-brakes, bamboo clumps, or small saplings. Hume 

 says : " The nest is placed in any bush or tree, prickly and thorny sites, such 

 as are afforded by the Ziziphus, wild date, babool. Euphorbias, etc., being 

 often, but by no means universally selected. Gtenerally the nest is within 

 15, not very rarely within 5 ft. of the ground, but again, I have found it 30 or 

 40 ft. up in a large tree." 



Mr. A. Anderson, who found the nest of the Spotted Dove on the ground, 

 also found a nest of this bird in a similar position. He remarks : " I have 

 discovered a curious nesting site for Turtur risorius, viz. the hare ground. 

 On the 20th November (of the present year) whilst drawing sandy downs, 

 covered with a low flowering grass, such as the Desert Fox delights in, a Dove 

 was flushed from off her nest which contaiaed a pair of fresh eggs. These 

 clearly belonged to T. risorius, but not having seen the bird myself, and 

 identification in a matter of this sort being an absolute necessity, I replaced 

 the eggs and subsequently shot one of the parent birds. 



" The nest, if such it can be styled, consisted of a few dry twigs which 

 rested on the bare sand. There was no tree nearer than a mile, but the 

 ground on all sides was covered with grass seeds, which constitutes the 

 chief food of these birds ; and this pair were evidently sensible enough to 

 adapt themselves to the force of circumstances." 



The site selected is generally a bush or tree in quite open country, or 

 such as is only thinly covered with trees, never, as far as I am aware, is it 

 placed inside heavy forest. Although not actually entering buUdings for 

 nesting purposes, as both the Spotted and Little Brown Doves do, they will 

 often select a bush within gardens and compounds or the environment of a 

 village. They do not take much care to place their nests in concealed positions, 

 although they certainly, as Hume says, prefer thorny trees to others. I have 

 seen a nest so placed in a small babool tree, standing quite by itself, that it 

 was visible from at least two hundred yards away in every direction, yet in 

 spite of this and of the fact that kites, crows, magpies, and other egg devourers 

 swarmed on all sides, they had managed to hatch and rear two young ones. 



Scully says that in Turkestan they often make their nests on the tops 

 of walls. 



The eggs, two in number, are of the regular smooth, rather glossy texture 

 of all Dove's eggs ; the shell rather stout in proportion to its size, and in shape 

 the normal oval, the two ends almost equal, whilst abnormal eggs tend to be 

 rather lengthened, and often somewhat pointed at both ends. 



There is a big series of these in the British Museum Collection, 

 of which Oates writes : " The eggs of the Indian Ring Dove in the collection 

 possess a comparatively small amount of gloss, and measure from 1.05 to 

 1.25 in length, and from .85 to 1 in breadth." 



My own eggs come within the extremes given by Oates, and these together 

 with the Museum eggs average 1.16 in. by .93 in. ( = 29.4 by 23.5 mm.). 



The Indian Ring-Dove is an extremely common bird over the 

 greater part of its range, but is rather capricious in its tastes, and is 



