THE MALAY SPOTTED DOVE. 
291 
blacky each feather with two squarish white spots at the tip ; back_, 
scapulars, wing-coverts and rump brown ; each feather blackish along the 
shaft and tipped on both webs with lighter brown ; the outermost wing- 
coverts pure grey on the outer webs ; quill dark brown_, some of the 
tertiaries with blackish shaft-streaks and tipped paler ; tail brown^ the 
outer feathers broadly tipped with white^ the white reduced in extent 
interiorly and disappearing on the fifth pair of feathers^ which are dark 
brown ; central pair conspicuously paler brown. 
The young have no white spots on the neck at first. 
Bill bluish black ; eyelids and skin of face plumbeous ; irides reddish ; 
legs deep red ; claws dark horn. 
Length 12*4 inches, tail 6, wing 5"5_, tarsus 1, bill from gape *9. The 
female is of about the same size. 
T. suratensis from India differs in having the shaft-streaks on the upper 
plumage well defined and terminating in a dark spot on the tips of the 
feathers ; the terminal spots on both webs of these parts are also very large 
and of a vinaceous pink colour. T. chinensis, from China, difPers in being 
larger and in entirely wanting the dark shaft-streaks on the upper 
plumage. 
The Malay Spotted Dove is extremely abundant over the whole 
Province. 
It extends northwards through the Indo-Burmese countries to Cachar, 
and eastwards to Cochin China. It ranges down the Malay peninsula to 
Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the more distant islands as far as Celebes and 
Amboina. 
This familiar Dove is met with in all the open and cultivated parts of - 
the Province, and also in small numbers in forests and dense jungle ; 
it does not, however, ascend the higher hills. It feeds entirely on the 
ground, on seeds and grain. 
It breeds almost all the year round, but chiefly from August to March, 
making a flimsy nest of twigs in low trees, bushes and bamboos, and laying- 
two eggs. 
V2 
