68 MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS. 
also ate earwigs and spiders. Dr. Greene dis- 
covered this accidentally when he one day saw his 
doves disputing with his Pekin Robins over some 
insects (provided for the latter birds) and gobbling 
down the daintics as fast as they could. Though 
the Tambourines were very wild when first they 
came, they soon settled down, and would take 
mealworms and insects from the hand. Dr. 
Greene considers this insect food, combined with 
the seed diet, as most essential to the health of 
these doves, and he also advises a constant supply 
of cuttlefish bone should be given. I believe, from 
my own experience, that doves thrive better and 
keep in finer plumage if a little soft food (that is, 
insectivorous food moistened and mixed with half 
biscuit, crushed) is given in addition to the secd. 
Dr. Greene’s birds made a nest of sticks on the top 
of a Hartz canary cage, but unfortunately he did 
not realise that the doves needed heat in winter, 
and both the birds died when the cold weather set 
in—first the hen, and a little later the cock. 
To Dr. Butler belongs the honour of having 
been the first to breed the Tambourine in this 
country, but not till he had suffered many dis- 
appointments and expectations that only ended in 
nothing. 
Many people think it is very easy to breed doves. 
1 grant they will easily make nests and lay egys, 
but to rear young birds to maturity is a very 
different matter—one has to be prepared, like 
King Bruce’s spider, to ‘‘try, try again.’” 
Those aviculturalists who have at last succeeded 
in breeding a rare bird for the first time, after 
many failures, can understand the joy of final 
success. Dr. Butler’s birds made nests, laid eggs, 
hatched them or not, Jet the young birds die, and 
this not once or twice, before any young were 
really reared. He tells us how the voung birds 
were 12 or 13 days old when he first dared to Jook 
at them. They were then about the size of a 
sparrow, and of most singular appearance. Most 
young doves have at first long downy-like hairs 
intermixed with the feathers, and in the young 
Tambourines these hairs were very marked. Com- 
pared with the parents, they were very tawny, and 
of course the white parts were not visible. It is 
curious that the white breasts of any adult doves 
are seldom if ever seen in the young birds; what 
will be white later is generally buffish or grey 
colour. 
One of Dr. Butler’s little Tambourines met with 
a sad accident which ended in its death. Both 
young ones jumped out of the nest, being suddenly 
startled by the cock bird, and fell on to the hard 
cement floor ; one escaped injury, but the other died 
three days later, though apparently unhurt at the 
time. The uninjured bird was successfully reared, 
though it was slow in being able to fly or do for 
itself. 
Though the Tambourine dove is very lovely, I 
cannot say I found my own three birds very 
interesting. They spent nearly all their time in 
the shelter, and only came out some times into the 
flight, generally towards evening; they greatly 
enjoyed sitting out in a heavy shower of rain, 
standing like a statue with the head thrown back ; 
but these little doves seem too lazy to care to move 
about much, and the alertness of most of the 
smaller doves seems to be lacking in them—they 
just sit still for you to admire them, and that one 
can do very honestly. 
I used to hear my cocks cooing, and once I saw 
one carrying a twig about; but they made no 
further effort towards nesting. Once when I had 
to catch one it cried and moaned like a child with 
fright, in much the same way that an Aurita dove 
does. 
INDIAN GREEN-WINGED DOVE. 
(Chalceophaps Indica). 
Habilat.—From India, Ceylon, Burmah and 
South China, through the Malay Peninsula and the 
Malay .\rchipelago to West New Guinea and the 
Islands in Geelvink Bay. 
Length.—About 10 inches. 
and thick set. 
Colouring,—Adult male—Forehead and_ streak 
above eye white, crown and back of head leaden 
grey; back of neck, throat and brcasi rich maroon 
(rather lighter on under parts); shoulder butts 
Shape, rather short 
whitish grey, wings and upper back bright 
‘bottle’? green, the lower back blackish barred 
across with grey; Jong quill wing feathers 
blackish, bill bright sealing-wax red, with dusky 
cere; iris dark brown, feet crimson. The hen is 
chestnut brown where the cock is maroon; she is 
rather a darker shade on the back of the neck, her 
shoulder butts are chestnut, and the white on her 
forehead smaller and not so pure; lower back 
chestnut, wings bright green with blackish quills, 
feet crimson, bill bright red. 
WILD LIFE, 
This beautiful little dove is common in India, 
and is often sold in the Calcutta market, or im- 
ported for sale to England. Dr. Butler tells us 
that ‘‘the Malays are said to give the name of 
‘Fool Pigeon’ to this bird on account of the ease 
with which they capture it. Concealing them- 
selves behind an arbour of branches in a clearing, 
they scatter rice around, and the birds crowd round 
in such numbers and with so little suspicion that 
they are seized one after the other by the hand 
