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I myself feel convinced that the bird was not an escaped one from a vessel, for the following 

 reasons, viz. : — So far as I can ascertain, no vessel trading direct from China or Japan has ever 

 discharged at a Swedish port north of Stockholm, or perhaps Gene ; and it is scarcely probable 

 that a young bird, especially after having been long caged (for it must necessarily have been 

 caged when very young), could have flown from either of these ports to Pitea. Besides, a 

 vessel would be several months on the voyage ; and the bird must therefore, if it had come that 

 way, have been caged almost as soon as it left the nest. When caught it was in its first 

 autumn's plumage ; this, again, is a proof that, had it been brought caged from Eastern Asia, 

 it could not have known what freedom was, and would not have been so wild as it was when in 

 Mr. Pettersson's possession. Professor Sundevall, writing respecting this bird, says (Ofv. K. Vet. 

 Ak. Forh. 1851, p. 183), " It is now over a year old, and has been in moult the entire month 

 (September), and will soon have its full plumage. The specimen from Herjeadale was certainly a 

 bird of the year in its first autumnal moult ; and one may with safety suggest that it was hatched 

 nearer than Eastern Asia, perhaps in the very province where it was obtained, or in Lapland ; 

 and it is not improbable that a pair had straggled as far west as to Scandinavia, and remained to 

 breed." It must also be recollected that the specimen caught at Pitea was a bird of the year, as 

 remarked by Professor Sundevall, in precisely similar plumage to that from Jemtland ; and this 

 fact makes it probable that it could not have straggled from Eastern Asia, but must have been 

 hatched somewhere nearer the place where it was caught. 



It is by no means improbable that it has been obtained elsewhere in North-east Europe, and 

 either overlooked or mistaken for the common Turtledove. In Asia it ranges throughout Eastern 

 Siberia, and is found throughout India, and as far south as Malacca. Von Middendorff states 

 that he found it common in South-east Siberia, from the bare summits of the Stanowoi Mountains 

 down to Udskoj-Ostrog. He first observed it on the 22nd May; and at the end of August it was 

 still to be seen on the south side of the sea of Ochotsk. Von Schrenck found it common on the 

 Amoor and the Ussuri, and adds that he was told by the natives that it occurs on Saghalien. 

 The first arrived at the Nikolaieffsk post early in April 1855; and on the 12th September he 

 shot one which was just moulting out of its nestling-plumage. Dr. Eadde remarks that it 

 arrives earlier on the Central Amoor than at the mouth of that river, and he observed it as early 

 as the 11th October (O.S.) in the Bureja Mountains. Though it arrives so early, it leaves late ; 

 for he observed a few on the 25th September on the islands of the Onon, near the old fortress 

 of Tschindantsk, though the main body leaves the Central Amoor about the 10th September. 



In India there are two forms of the present species ; but, from the series I have examined, I 

 find the variation between the two so considerable that I cannot treat them as distinct species. 

 One of these forms, the Turtur rupicola of many Indian authors, is the dark form with grey 

 under tail-coverts ; and the extreme of the other form, which, judging from Sykes's description, is 

 the Turtur meena of this author, has the uuderparts paler than in Japanese and Chinese birds, 

 and the under tail-coverts and terminal portion of the tail nearly pure white. But both the light 

 and dark forms of the present species can at once be distinguished from our Turtledove by having 

 the tips to the black feathers on the sides of the neck greyish blue, and not white. Dr. Jerdon, 

 writing (B. of India, ii. p. 477) about the present species, says that it "is a regular winter 

 visitant, retiring to the hills to breed. It is more rare in the south of India than in Central or 



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