THE SCALY AND PICUI OR STEEL-BARRED DOVES. 61 
Parson Finch talking in his own language to the 
dove all day long. 
My first hen Diamond dove was bought in 1899, 
and cost me 10/6; after it moulted the feathers 
turned from grey to browny drab. I have noticed 
this changing also in the Picui dove—that after the 
moult the’ colour is often different. In 1900 I 
bought a fine cock Diamond, very dark grey, and 
the skin round the eye coral-red, but 1 never 
succeeded in rearing any young ones. 
THE SCALY DOVE. 
(Scardafella squamosa). 
Habitat.—Brazil, Venezuela, and Columbia. 
Length.—About 8 inches. Shape, slender, with 
long tail. 
Colouring.—Adult male—Upper parts greyish 
brown; lower parts white, with a pinkish tinge 
on the sides and lower neck and also on the breast; 
each feather edged with a crescentic bar of black, 
except the under-tail coverts, which are pure white. 
The wings are light brown (also edged with black 
crescentic bars), the long quills brown; the tail 
is brown and black, the black feathers having 
broad white tips, the bill is brownish black, the 
feet flesh colour, the iris carmine red. The hen is 
similar to the cockbird. 
WILD LIFE. 
Mr. Taylor, in an article on Birds of the West 
Indies, tells us how the bush and savannah in the 
neighbourhood of Ciudad Bolivar swarm with little 
ground doves. Both the Scaly and the Talpacoti 
dove are found there, but the latter in more abun- 
dance than the former. 
Mr. Forbes, whilst riding in Brazil, several times 
flushed little coveys of the Scaly dove, ‘‘which rose 
up from the road and took refuge in the nearest 
tree. Usually these parties consisted of about 
four; when rising they make, apparently with their 
wings, a curious rattling noise, whence they are 
called by the Brazilians ‘Réla Cascavel,’ cascavel 
meaning a rattle, and being also the name applied 
by the natives to the Brazilian Rattlesnake.” 
LIFE IN CAPTIVITY. 
I purchased a pair of these little doves in 1903. 
The price asked for the Scalys at first was 25/- 
a pair, but I fancy they did not sell very quickly. 
Eventually I gave 35/- for a pair each of Scaly 
and Cinnamon doves. The former are strange- 
looking little birds, something the shape of a Zebra 
dove, with a fairly long tail. Like the Zebra dove, 
too, the Scaly seems rather liable to suffer from an 
overgrown beak, and possibly not only overgrown, 
but twisted, for when one mandible gets longer 
' than the other it is impossible for the two portions 
of the beak to fit properly in position. 
Of all small operations to be performed on birds 
I think I find beak trimming the most unpleasant. 
In these two pairs of doves I have just mentioned 
two out of the four birds wanted their beaks cut- 
ting when I got them. Sometimes this over- 
growth is u sign of weakness, sometimes of old 
age. At the present time I should not care to add 
any bird to my collection with this failing, for even 
when once cut the beak will grow long again. 
I have not much to record about my own Scaly 
doves, for ] did not much care for them nor even 
think them very pretty; but Dr. Greene in his 
“Notes on Cage Birds” is evidently a great 
admirer of this little dove, for he gives a long 
account of its nesting, besides praising its appear- 
ance. He speaks of it as quick and lively in its 
movements, ever on the alert, very quiet with other 
birds, and that it has a sonorous and really musical 
call—‘‘ Roo-koo-koo.’”’ 
Dr. Greene considers the Scaly dove fairly hardy. 
He says the breeding season in England may be 
said to be from the middle of May; the hen 
arranges the nest, whilst the cock carries her up 
the material; incubation lasts 16 or 17 days, both 
birds sharing in the work of sitting and feeding. 
The young do well if the weather is warm and 
genial, but if cold and damp it is doubtful if they 
are reared. The young birds differ considerably 
from the old birds until after their first moult; 
their colour till then is a pale ashen-grey, very 
slightly marked with the ‘‘scaly”’ tips of the 
feathers, so marked a feature in the plumage of 
the old birds. 
Dr. Greene says these doves in captivity live 
principally on white millet, with a little hemp and 
canary; they are fond of pecking about in the 
grass, and eat the tips of it and probably many 
minute insects at the same time. 
The Scaly dove has been kept at the Zoo as far 
back as 1867. I believe it was bred in England 
for the first time quite recently. After keeping my 
pair of birds over a year I was still so little in love 
with them that I sold them for 8/6. 
PICUI OR STEEL-BARRED DOVE. 
(Columbula Picut). 
Habitat.—South Brazil, Paraguay, Argentine, 
Chili, and Bolivia. 
Length.—About 7 inches. Shape, very well 
proportioned. 
Colouring.—General colour grey. Soft grey on 
back and head, shading into almost white on the 
face and breast. A steel-blue bar runs high up 
across the wing, but as this band is very dark it 
does not do much to lighten up the colour of the 
bird. The feet are purple-red, the bill black, the 
