180 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
125. PALM Dove, Turtur senegalensis (Linn.) ; 
“ Gumi.” , 
It is hard to say where the Palm Dove is not found, so 
universally is it spread through the length and breadth of 
Egypt. It will probably be the first bird which the observer 
meets with when he sets foot on the quay of Alexandria, 
perhaps cooing on some stucco cornice, perhaps fluttering 
among the boats in the harbour. The only part where we 
did not find it was the northern portion of the Damietta 
branch, and there for more than three weeks it certainly 
was conspicuous for its absence. These Doves frequent the 
Palm, Acacia, Nabuk, and every other kind of tree that is 
known to grow in Egypt, and practise their love-arts in the 
green foliage. By night they roost in hundreds in some 
Orange trees at a village near Benisouef, and a grove of 
dwarf Palms is often a favourite place. In towns and 
villages there are always a good many; whether consisting 
of the rickety tenements of the natives, or the modern inno- 
vation of lath and plaster, is all the same to the confiding 
Palm Dove. I saw some flying about the inside of a large 
sugar manufactory, where they appeared quite at home. I 
have often heard of their coming into rooms, and on one 
occasion one came into the cabin of our Diabeyha, and 
another day a pair settled on the awning; but it must be 
understood that they are not in any sense domesticated. Of 
their own free will they affect the society of man, and he 
protects them. 
The immature Palm Dove is brown, and so unlike its 
parents that it might be taken for a different species. There 
is also an extraordinary amount of variation in the adults, 
a circumstance to which my attention was particularly 
drawn by shooting a very light yellowish female on the 
12th of March. . The differences lie especially in. the. tints. 
