COLUMBA CASIOTIS. 



(EASTERN RING-DOVE.) 



Columba palumbus, Blyth, J. As. Soc. Beng. xiv. p. 865 (1844. partim). 

 Palumhus torquatus, var., id. Cat. Mus. As. Soc. Beng. p. 233 (1849). 

 Palumbus casiotis, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. ii. p. 42 (1857). 

 Columba casiotis (Bp.), G. R. Gray, List B. Brit. Mus., Columbae, p. 26 (1856). 

 Columba palumbus himalayana, Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Columbae, p. 66 (1873). 

 Columba pulchricollis, Severtz. Turk. Jevotnie, p. 68 (1873, nee Gould). 

 Palumba pulchricollis, id. J. f. O. 1875, p. 180 (nee Gould). 



Figura unica. 

 Bonap. Icon. Pig. pi. lviii. 



Ad. C. palumbo similis, sed plaga utrinque in colli lateribus ochrace& nee alba. 



Adult Male (Tian-shan, May). Resembles Columba palumbus, but differs in having the patches on the 

 sides of the neck ochraceous instead of white. 



The range of this eastern representative of our Ring-Dove extends from the high plateau of 

 Persia eastward through Afghanistan and the Himalayas to Turkestan and Kuldja. 



I do not find that it has been met with in Transcaspia, though it is not improbable that it 

 may occur in the eastern portion of that district ; but in Persia Mr. Blanford (E. Persia, ii. p. 269) 

 met with it " near Shiraz and north of the Elburz in Mazandaran and Ghilan, and also in gardens 

 containing large trees near the higher villages, as at Rayin, near Karman." Col. Swinhoe found 

 it common in Afghanistan, at Kandahar, the Kojuk, and Quetta. Major Wardlaw-Ramsay 

 (Ibis, 1880, p. 68) states that he met with it " not generally common in the Hariab district. In 

 one spot, however, in the pine-forest between the main range of the Safed-Koh and the village of 

 Ali Kheyl a large flock could always be found in the month of April. By the middle of the 

 next month they had all paired. I found several nests, but I was not able to obtain the eggs." 

 Sir O. St. John (Ibis, 1889, p. 173) found it " very numerous in suitable localities, such as the 

 large gardens about Kandahar and in the wooded hills west of Quetta. It breeds in large 

 numbers in the juniper-forests of Ziarat, 7000 to 9000 feet, migrating to the lower hills in 

 autumn." Both Col. Biddulph and Mr. Scully met with it in Gilgit, where, according to the 

 latter (Ibis, 1881, p. 583), it is "a fairly common summer visitor; it arrives about the middle 

 of April, and leaves in the middle of November. It breeds in the forests above 8000 feet, and 

 is found in the main valley at about 5000 feet, on arrival in April and May, and again in 

 October and November on its way down south." In India, according to Dr. Jerdon, it is found 

 in the N.W. Himalayas, near Simla, and in the alpine Punjab, and visits the Salt Range and the 

 plains of the Punjab during winter. Mr. A. O. Hume says that they first appear about Simla, 



