SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 179 
124. TURTLE DovE, Turtur auritus (Linn.) 
“Yamameh.” 
First seen on the 2nd of April. By the end of the month 
only a portion were paired. They are much wilder than 
the other Doves. Owing to their far lighter colouring, they 
are generally easy to be told from Zurtur tsabellinus ata 
considerable distance: indeed, they are lighter than any 
English examples I ever saw. We certainly did not find the 
difference in time of arrival between the two nearly so great 
as Captain Shelley did. I have notes of seeing two large 
flocks in May—100 or 200 in each—one at the Khedive’s 
nursery garden at Minieh, the other on a bank at Fechn 
feeding upon the seeds of a species of thistle. 
1243, Turtur isabellinus, Bp., T. sharpit, Shelley. 
Captain Shelley says this bird arrives in the beginning of 
February, but though a sharp look-out was kept by us, we 
did not get any before the 26th of March, when five were shot 
on Elephantine Island. For the next ten days it was very 
common, and I saw some large flocks evidently migrating, 
Then it grew scarcer, and I began to think we had reached 
its northern limits; but I found it again at the Faioum. 
Here it probably nidifies among the tamarisk bushes, 
though I often saw it out on the lake. The specimens we 
shot at the Faioum were not so sandy-coloured, nor near so 
bright as those we killed before. One shot on the 27th of 
March contained a perfect egg ready for exclusion. 
Iam informed by Captain Shelley and Mr. E. C. Taylor 
that this species is 7. dsabellinus, though I should never 
have supposed it from Bonaparte’s figure, but the type has 
been examined, and that settles the question. 
