232 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



cambayensis. They about equal these eggs also in size, but in shape are 

 generally a little longer in comparison with their breadth. 



The series in the British Museum Collection, and the others which I have 

 measured have averaged 1.05 by .81 in. ( = 26.7 by 20.6 mm.), whilst the 

 greatest and least in length were 1.12 and .97 in. ( = 28.4 and 24.6 mm.) 

 respectively, and in breadth .87 and .75 in. ( = 22.1 and 19.0 mm.) 



Alfchougb the Red Turtle-Dove is a very common, familiar bird 

 in many parts of the wide area over which it is distributed, it cannot 

 be said anywhere to be quite so confiding in its habits as either the 

 Little Brown Dove or the Spotted Doves. It frequents the outskirts 

 of villages and may, on rare occasions, even be found in gardens of 

 European houses, but it only enters these latter in search of food, and 

 when disturbed is not content with fljdng up on to the nearest tree 

 like the other Doves, but clears out altogether. 



It feeds almost entirely on the ground, and its main articles of diet 

 are grass and other seeds and various kinds of ripening grain ; it also, 

 however, eats a certain amount of green food and buds of plants, for 

 I have shot them with their crops full of young mustard-leaves. 



It is generally to be found where there is a certain amount of 

 forest or jimgle of some kind, rather than in the more open country ; 

 but it is very capricious in its choice of haunts, and it is not always 

 easy to say why it selects one particular piece of country for a home and 

 rejects apparently similar places close by. It must have water some- 

 where near, for it is as thirsty a bird as are the other Doves, and drinks 

 morning, noon, and evening. 



Mr. C. R. S. Pitman, writing to me about this Dove, says : " 1 

 found it plentiful in the Chanda District of the Central Provinces, and 

 generally well distributed throughout the jungle and forest tracts, 

 but, like all other Doves, it is dependent on the water-supply, and whilst 

 I failed to meet with it in some places, in others which seemed to me 

 to be no more suitable, it simply swarmed. . . In one of these latter 

 places the dry, bare paddy fields, shorn of their crops, looked a rich 

 magenta-colour in patches from the number of male Red Turtle-Doves 

 which were feeding there. It was curious to see these vast flocks which 

 were composed entirely of males, whereas one generally sees them 

 going about in pairs. 



" I found these Doves much more shy than the other species, and 

 they were very wary whenever I was out with a gun in my hand." 



The flight of the Red Turtle-Dove is extremely fast, as one would 



