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Genus TURTUR. 



Columba apud Brisson, Orn. i. p. 92 (1760). 



Peristera apud Boie, Isis, 1828, p. 327. 



Turtur, Selby, Naturalist's Library, v. p. 169 (1835). 



Streptopelia apud Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av. ii. p. 65 (1857). 



The Turtle Doves inhabit the Paraparetic, Ethiopian, and Oriental Regions, five species being 

 found in the Western Palaearctic Region. 



In habits the Turtle Doves differ but little from the Pigeons. They frequent forests, 

 gardens, and cultivated ground, some of the species being partial to the vicinity of inhabited 

 places. They walk with ease, and fly with great swiftness, threading the tangled forest-glades 

 with ease. They feed entirely on vegetable substances, and feed their young from their own 

 crop like the Pigeons. They are strictly monogamous, and are said to pair for life. Their nest, 

 which is a loose, slight platform of sticks, is placed on a tree or bush ; and in it they deposit two 

 elongated oval white eggs. 



In the article on the common Turtle Dove I have called it Turtur vulgaris, Eyton ; but since 

 then I have ascertained that Selby's name, Turtur communis (Natural. Libr. v. p. 153, 1835), which 

 has precedence of Eyton's by one year, must stand, and Turtur vulgaris will have to sink into a 

 synonym. The generic title Turtur is undoubtedly the correct one, as Peristera of Boie, given 

 in 1828, was preoccupied by Swainson in 1827 for Peristera cinerea (Temm.) and its allies. 



Turtur communis, the type of the genus, has the bill short, rather slender, compressed, 

 decurved, and sharp-edged, though obtuse at the tip ; at the base of the upper mandible are two 

 soft, tumid, bare substances placed over the nostrils ; nostrils linear, placed in the lower and fore 

 part of the nasal membrane ; wings long, full, rather pointed, the second quill longest, the first 

 being scarcely shorter ; tail moderately long, rounded ; legs short, rather strong ; the tarsus 

 anteriorly scutellate, and posteriorly scurfy ; toes moderately long ; claws moderately long, 

 arched, acute. 



The American Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) has been included in the European 

 list on the faith of occurrences stated to have taken place in Great Britain ; but it is probable 

 that they were escaped birds, as this Pigeon is not unfrequently kept caged, and examples have 

 been turned out, as stated by Turnbull (B. of East Lothian, p. 41) — who remarks that several were 

 turned out in Berwickshire shortly before a specimen was shot by Lord Haddington at Mellerstain 

 in that county. Under these circumstances, and as this Pigeon is essentially an American species, 

 I have deemed it best to exclude it. 



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