64 MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS. 
change colour. Then in my ignorance I did a very 
_foolish thing with the best of intentions. The 
nest was so exposed, and the aviary so full of 
mixed birds and possible enemies, that I watched 
my opportunity whilst the hen was off the nest, 
and fixed up a few Scotch fir branches before the 
nest, though in no way touching it, as a screen. 
But the hen did not like this arrangement, and 
would not go back till I had taken down the 
branches again, when she returned at once. 
The birds went on sitting, and just a day or so 
before the egg was due to hatch I found the cock 
sitting by the side of the hen on the nesi. I knew 
what it meant, and my hopes sank; the cock was 
trying to persuade the hen to leave the eyy and 
start a fresh nest. Needless to say he succeeded, 
and in a few hours J had to admit the disappoint- 
ing fact that the nest was deserted. It was all the 
more trying as the egg contained a very fine young 
bird just ready to hatch. 
The Passerine is rather a tiresome little dove to 
other small doves of its size and to its own kind, 
chasing them continually till they are tired out. 
The Zoo possessed a Passerine so far back as 
1860. At the present time these charming little 
doves cost 15/- or less a pair. They should be 
brought in during the winter, for being such 
ground-loving birds they would soon get chilled 
and die if left out in the wet or snowy weather. 
THE TALPACOTI (OR CINNAMON) DOVE. 
(Chamaepelia Talpacoti). 
Habitat.—Venezuela (Orinoco), Guiana, Brazil, 
Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru. 
Length.—About 7 inches. 
to a Passerine dove. 
Colouring.—General colour brown vinous red; 
paler, almost white, on the breast; upper part of 
the head and nape grey, lighter on the forehead. 
The wings and tail are brownish black, and the 
former has several blotches of a black stecl-blue. 
The iris is dull yellow-red, the fecc flesh colour, 
the bill dark brown. The hen is paler and duller 
in colouring; a brownish tinge on the mantle; 
some specimens have hardly « vinous tinge, but 
are tinged with pale brownish grey, with the 
middle of the abdomen whitish, and the under tail 
coverts dull rufous cdged with whitish. 
Shape, very similar 
WILD LIFE. 
Mr. E. W. White, on Birds from the .\rgentine 
Republic, writes as follows :—‘‘These pretty 
chocolate-coloured doves fly in pairs, and at this 
date (November) were found constructing their 
nests in the orange groves; they are sometimes 
seen on the ground busily in quest of seeds, but 
are very wild and not at all common, I shot 
specimens at Concepcion, Misiones, in the month 
of June, but they were rare there.’’ 
Another writer, Mr. Hamilton, also notes the 
shy nature of the Talpacoti. He says: ‘I only 
noticed these birds round one or two farms, where 
they associated in small flocks, feeding on the 
ground in company with various kinds of small 
birds, and were remarkably shy; on the approach 
of anyone they were invariably the first to take 
alarm and fly away. I saw them occasionally 
perched upon the roofs of outhouses.”’ 
Here we have two records of this dove being shy 
and timid, but a third writer, Mr. Selby, experi- 
enced the reverse. He writes of the Cinnamon 
dove as follows :—‘tThis diminutive species, which 
only measures about 6} inches in lenyth, is pretty 
widely distributed throughout Brazil, Paraguay, 
and other districts of South America. It lives in 
the open grounds, but generally near the confines 
of woods, as it roosis and breeds upon the lower 
bushes or underwood, but never upon the larger 
trees or far from the ground. It is generally 
observed in pairs, sometimes in families of four 
or six, but never associated in large flocks. It 
appears to be of a tame disposition, as it is seen 
constantly about the confines of houses or in the 
farmyards, and readily admits of a near 
approach.’”” 
Wigler observes that in Europe it is easily kept 
and propagated in the aviary. It is active upon 
the ground, and feeds upon the smaller cerealia, 
berries, etc.’’ 
LIFE IN CAPTIVITY. 
IT have only kept one pair of this little dove. This 
was in 1903, when I bought one pair each of 
Talpacoti and Sealy doves. The next year I un- 
fortunately lost my hen Cinnamon, I think from 
cold. It is unwise to leave any small doves in a 
cold aviary for the winter; they do not seem to 
have the stamina of the larger kinds. 
Mr. Castle-Sloane, in 1904, was very successful 
in breeding the Talpacoti dove. Probably his birds 
were from the sume importation as mine, for he 
first had them in the same year. They reared 
three broods in the season, the eggs of the third 
nest being laid on July 6th and 7th, and were 
hatched out on the 22nd. The nest was built of 
hay in some pine branches nailed close up to the 
roof of the shelter; so small was the nest that it 
hardly seemed capable of holding the two eggs. 
The young were like the hen in colour. (Another 
writer tells us they have no black blotches on the 
wings, and the tail feathers are edged with red- 
dish). Later a fourth brood were hatched out, but 
I do not know if they were reared. 
