ANDAMAN CUCEOO-DOVB 245 



surface of the body is much more of a chestnut-hTown than it is in the male ; 

 the bars on this part of the plumage are either entirely wanting or they are 

 represented by a faint stippling of blackish-brown on the abdomen and 

 lower-breast. 



In old birds the feathers of the lower-neck and upper-breast are edged 

 with black, giving a somewhat striated appearance to this part of the plumage. 



According to Wardlaw Ramsay the adult female is similar to the adult 

 male, but thjs does not appear to be the case. In the British Museum 

 Collection there is not a single specimen of a female which is an3rthing like the 

 adult male. In both sexes in old birds in perfect plumage there is a faint 

 lilac sheen on shoulders or breast or both, but the females which possess this 

 sheen — ^never present in young birds — are all as described above. Moreover, 

 as is shown below, immaturity is quite distinctly shown by definite markings, 

 and the adult female cannot well be confounded with immature birds. 



Colours of soft parts. As in the male. 



Measurements. The females are, perhaps, a trifle smaller than the 

 males, the average wing-measurements of seventeen birds being 7.25 in. 

 ( = 184 mm.). In bulk they are decidedly less, weighing, according to 

 Davison, from 6 to 8 oz., only one bird attaining the latter weight. 



Richmond gives the length of the female as 390.5 mm. 



Young males differ from the adult female in being more rufous in their 

 general tone of coloration ; the wing-quills are broadly edged and tipped 

 with this colour, the innermost secondaries being almost entirely rufous. 



The chestnut feathers of the head and neck are edged with black, and 

 the barring on the upper- and lower-back is much more distinct, the bars being 

 both wider and darker. The feathers of the rump, and to a less extent those of 

 the upper tail-coverts, are also much more chestnut than in the adult male. 



Distribution. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 



Nidification. The nest and eggs of this Cuckoo-Dove have not yet 

 been discovered with any certainty, though Davison found a nest which, at 

 the time he found it, he believed to have belonged to this species. He says : 

 " I have never found the nest of this bird, nor could I obtain any authentic 

 information as to its nidification beyond that it breeds about May, building 

 among the mangroves on the island of Triokut. I found a nest, and from 

 the sight I got of the bird as she left the nest I put it down at once as that 

 of the present species ; but a few days afterwards I found a nest exactly similar, 

 and containing exactly similar eggs, and off this nest I shot the female, which 

 proved to be Ghalcophaps indica, so I infer that the first nest was also one of 



G. indica." , ,, ^ „. , . . ,. 



From what we know now of the eggs of the two allied species, tusaka 

 and rufkeps, they only differ from the eggs of Ghalcophaps in that those of 

 tusalia are much bigger, and in the case of both birds are somewhat differently 

 shaped as a rule, though I have eggs of rupieps which could not possibly be 

 distinguished from those of the Emerald Dove. In his identification of the 

 bird which left the nest it would be utterly impossible for Davison to have 

 made a mistake, and it seems certam, therefore, that his first identifi- 

 cation was correct, and that the nest was that of the Andaman Cuckoo-Dove. 



Davison, as quoted by Hume in Stray Feathers (l.o.), says : " This 

 Dove is very abundant at the Andamans, but somewhat less so at 

 the Nicobars ; it frequents gardens, clearings, the secondary jungle, 

 etc., retiring to the forest during the heat of the day. As far as I have 



S 



