(45) STREPTOPELIA RISORIA XANTHOCYCLA (Newman). 

 THE BURMESE RING-DOVE. 



Turtur xanthocycla Newman, Avi. Mag. 1896, p. 321 ; Hears, J.B.N.H.S., 



XVIII, p. 86 ; Harington, B. Burma, p. 68. 

 Turtur douraca Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 430 (part). 

 Turtur risorius Blanf., Avi. Brit. I., IV p. 46 (part) ; Anderson, Yunnan 



Exp., p. 666 ; Hume, Str. Feath., Ill p. 165 ; Wald., in Blyth's B. Burma, 



p. 146 ; Gates, Str. Feath., X p. 235 ; id., B. Brit. Burma, II p. 293 ; 



Hume, Str. Feath., XI p. 299 (part) ; Macdonald, J.B.N.H.S., XVIII 



p. 496. 



Streptopdia dourica Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 79 (part) ; Gates, Cat. Esss 

 B.M., I p. 96 (part). r vr / . ss 



Vernacular Name. Oyo-lin-bya, Burmese. 



Description. — Adult male. " In general appearance like T. democta 

 decaocia " (Streptopelia risoria), " but easily distinguished by broad yellow 

 bare rings round the eyes " (Newman). 



" The colour generally is darker and more vivid than in Indian specimens 

 of this species, and the collar is larger and more crescentic than in ordinary 

 T. risorius, and if Jerdon's measurements are founded on fresh specimens, 

 this bird is decidedly larger. He gives 13 in. as the extreme length, but my 

 specimen measures 14 in., its wing 7 in., and its tail 6 in." (Anderson's 

 Report on the Expedition to Western Yunnan.) 



There is little on record about this Dove except what has been written 

 by Mr. Newman in the Avicultural Magazine already referred to ; he there 

 sums up as follows the evidence to show that the Burmese and eastern bird 

 is different to the Indian : " The Burmese bird possesses most remarkable 

 yellow rings of bare skin round its eyes, which are most conspicuous in the 

 living bird. I do not know any other Turtle-Doves of any species what- 

 ever that has yellow round the eye. I had hoped to have been able to 

 compare the plumage with birds from India, etc., which the lamentable 

 destruction of the specimen now renders impossible. I am informed by 

 those who know the Collared Turtle-Dove well in India, where it is a common 

 bird and frequently kept in cages, that there it has no such yellow bare 

 skin, in fact, in this respect it seems to resemble the domestic Barbary 

 Dove. I have also looked up numerous references, and in every case when 

 the colour of the orbital skin is given (excluding the two localities Burma 

 and China mentioned below) it is described as ' Lower eyelid slaty-grey ' 

 (this is the typical form from Yarkand), Scully, Stray Feathers, IV p. 178 ; 

 ' orbital skin bluish-white ' (Eastern Bengal), Cripps, ib., VII p. 297 ; 

 and again ' orbital skin bluish-white ' (Ceylon), Legge, Birds of Ceylon, 

 p. 702 ; also ' orbital skin whitish ' (Palestine), Dresser, Birds of Europe, 

 Vn p. 51. In the original drawing from which fig. 2 in the plate has been 

 traced, which was taken from the type of Turtur douraca, the skin round 

 the eye is coloured grejdsh-white, with no sign of yellow. This is a native 



