50 



on the ground as the latter bird often does, but resembles it in the habit of frequenting burial- 

 grounds and sandy districts, frequently at some distance from trees, which is seldom the case with 

 Tnrtur auritus. Its egg is intermediate in size, and, from the one specimen I brought home, 

 appears to be of a less pure white than those of the other two species. In the beginning of 

 April it so far surpassed in numbers its congener, Turtur senegalensis, that sixty out of sixty-two 

 specimens which I killed on an island of the First Cataract were of this species." 



Von Heuglin, who only recognizes it as a species in the addenda and corrigenda of his work, 

 gives no details respecting its range and habits beyond what he takes from Captain Shelley's 

 work ; but Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., in his notes on the ornithology of Egypt (Ramb. Nat. p. 179), 

 has: — "Captain Shelley says that 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 that we had reached its 

 northern limits; but I found it again at the Fayoom. Here it probably breeds among the 

 tamarisk-bushes, though I often saw it out on the lake. The specimens we shot at the Fayoom 

 were not so sandy-coloured, nor nearly so bright as those we killed before. One shot on the 

 27th of March contained a perfect egg ready for exclusion." 



It seems that the present species penetrates tolerably far south in the winter season ; but I 

 am unable to find how far into the interior of Africa its range extends. It is not included by 

 Messrs. Finsch and Hartlaub in their work on the ornithology of East Africa, and does not 

 appear, therefore, to have been met with within their limits. Beyond what information is given 

 above I find nothing on record respecting the habits of this little-known species. 



The specimen figured is an adult bird obtained by Captain Shelley in Egypt. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 



a, j ad. Egypt, April 1871 (G. E. Shelley). 



E Mus. G. E. Shelley, 

 a, d ad. Egypt, April 1871, type of T. sharpii (G. E. S.). 



