248 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



white or grey, occasionally pinkish-white and sometimes grey with an inner 

 ring of blue ; orbital skin and eyelids pale bluish. 



Measurements. Length 12 to 13 in. ( = 305 to 330 mm.) ; wing from 

 5.3 to 5.95 in. ( = 134.6 to 151.1 mm.) ; tail 6.3 to 7.0 in. ( = 160.0 to 

 177.8 mm.) ; bill at front, about .5 in. ( = 12.7 mm.), and from gape about 

 .9 in. ( = 22.8 mm.) ; tarsus .75 in. ( = 19.0 mm.). 



" Weight 3.5 to 4 oz." (Davison). 



Males not quite adult. The amount of rufous edging to the feathers 

 of the wing and back is greater in extent, and a certain amount of black 

 mottling shows on the breast ; the dark barring on the neck and upper-back 

 is more pronounced and the sheen less distinct. 



Female. Differs from the male in being duller and darker above ; the 

 rufous of the head is well defined from the brown of the back and neck, and 

 there is no purple tint or lilac sheen on these parts ; below also the colours 

 are generally darker and duller, and the mottlings on the breast caused by 

 the black bases and edges of the feathers is very pronounced, this mottling 

 often extending up on to the neck and even on to the sides of the throat. 

 The feathers of the upper-back and neck are also minutely freckled with 

 pale brown. 



Colours of soft parts. As in the male. 



Measurements. I cannot see that the female is any smaller than the 

 male, though it is generally credited with being so. The largest bird in the 

 British Museum Collection is a female from Flores, with a wing 6.3 in. 

 ( = 160 mm.), whilst the smallest is a bird of the same sex from Bona Balu, 

 with a wing of only 5.15 in. ( = 130.8 mm.). 



Young mMes are like the female, but with the black mottling on the 

 breast still more extensive, and with the whole of the upper-parts barred 

 with black and rufous ; the feathers of the rump are more vermiculated than 

 barred and have rufous fringes to the longer feathers, whilst the upper tail- ' 

 coverts are broadly edged with rufous. 



As long ago as 1874 Hume {Stray Feathers, II p. 441) separated the 

 Burmese form of ruficeps from the Javan bird, giving the former the name of 

 assimilis, and very recently Streseman {Nov. Zool., XX p. 312) has again 

 gone very carefully into the question of dividing ruficeps into local races. 

 Hume divided his bird on account of three details in which, he said, the Burmese 

 form differed from the southern : (1) Back of neck and interscapulary region 

 dark brown, with scarcely any metallic gloss ; (2) breast conspicuously mottled 

 with dark brown ; (3) chin and throat pale rufescent-white. As regards 

 these differences — (1) is worthless, as the three most highly-glossed and palest- 

 coloured birds I have ever seen are three fine males from Tenasserim ; (2) is 

 only a question of age ; (3) is partly a question of age and also partly a 

 question of how a skin is made up. A series of skins, well made with the 

 feathers lying flat, will show much whiter chins and throats, on an average, 

 than will a series in which these parts are badly made. Also a series of very 

 old birds will show up much whiter than a series of young. Now the skins 

 Hume dealt with were Davison's well-made adult skins from Tenasserim, 

 and a series not nearly so well made, and averaging much younger, from the 

 Malay Peninsula and elsewhere, hence his third characteristic is also valueless. 

 Streseman has divided this species into four subspecies : ruficeps rufkeps, 

 rufkeps orientalis (Hartert), nana (Streseman), and assimilis (Hume). 



Streseman relies principally upon average measurements on which to 

 base his subspecies, and to this adds : (1) amount of dark spotting on crop; 



