COLUMBIDJD CHALCOPELIA 181 



or blue; two broad black bands across the rump separated by a 

 pale earthy band ; tail-coverts and tail brown, tipped with black, 

 the outer pair ashy at the base and tip, with. a subterminal band of 

 black and a white basal half on the outer web ; below vinaceous- 

 pink, paler on the chin and abdomen ; under tail-coverts black, the 

 outer ones white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries cinnamon. 



Iris dark-brown, space round eyes slate colour ; bill deep purple 

 horn ; legs deep lilac. 



Length 85 ; wing 4-3 ; tail 3*40; tarsus '■75 ; culmen -60. 



The female is slightly smaller, has the metallic spots on the 

 wings of a golden-green, and is a darker vinous-pink on the lower 

 side. 



Distribution. — The Emerald-spotted Dove is found over the 

 greater part of Africa from Senegal, Abyssinia and Somaliland 

 southwards. In South Africa it is chiefly met with in the wooded 

 districts, but it is more widely spread and is more abundant than 

 the Tambourine Dove, extending to the Transvaal, Ehodesia and 

 the northern part of German South-west Africa. 



The following are recorded localities : Cape Colony — Worcester 

 and Long Kloof in Uniondale (Layard), Knysna, October (Victorin), 

 Uitenhage and East London (Eickard), King William's Town 

 (Trevelyan) ; Natal — Durban and Pinetown, March (Shelley), 

 Blaauwkrantz river near Colenso, May (Gates), Eshowe in Zululand 

 (Woodward) ; Transvaal — Barberton (Eendall), Swaziland, July 

 (Buckley in Brit. Mus.), Eovirand in Zoutspansberg and Rustenburg 

 (W. Ayres) ; Bechuanaland — Moxowi in the Kalahari and Ngami 

 (Fleck) ; Ehodesia — near Victoria Falls cominon (W. L. Sclater), 

 Shagari river in Mashonaland (Marshall) ; German South-west 

 Africa — N. Damaraland and Ovampoland (Andersson) ; Zambesi 

 Valley (Alexander). 



Habits. — The Emerald-spotted Dove resembles the Tambourine 

 Dove in its habits, but frequents somewhat more open ground, such 

 as broken bush, clearings near the banks of rivers and such-like 

 localities ; it obtains its food, which consists chiefly of grass seeds, 

 on the ground, and has a gentle cooing note, "boo hoo hoo-hoo " 

 in gradually descending scale, which is very characteristic, and once 

 heard is never likely to be forgotten. Its nesting habits resemble 

 those of other Doves ; Andersson writes as follows : — " This Dove 

 constructs a nest of a few rough sticks in a bush or at the 

 extremity of a bough of some low stunted tree. The sticks compos- 

 ing the nest are so loosely put together that a person looking at it 



