THE BAEBED GEOUND-DOVE 
Geopelia striata (Lintt,) 
Malay names :—Msrhok; Ketitir. 
We have now come to two birds with which a!l residents 
in Singapore must be thoroujjhly familiar for they frequent 
the gardens of the town houses in a confiding and sometimes 
almost domesticated manner^ are frequently to be seen walking^ 
about our tennis courts, and most Malay syces have a tiny 
bamboo cage in which one of these unfortunate little birds is 
confined. 
The reader will certainly ask why we have dropped the 
word *'pigeon'* and substituted "dove". We have in fact 
little excuse beyond that we are the slave of custom. A good 
many popular names are so fixed that it would be a great 
pity to alter them, but unfortunately they are often very loosely 
applied and indeed more often have little, if any, exact 
significance. That is our chief objection to popular names. 
We always know the bird under discussion at the moment as 
Geopeiia strmta and find the name quite as easy to remember 
as '*the barred ground-dove*' but people will have colloquial 
names rather than what they call "scientific names*' and in 
this case we are out to supply the public demand ! 
Shi/ting the responsibility for our use of the word **dove" 
to another and more authoritative quarter we open Newton's 
*' Dictionary of Birds" and read *'Dove a name which 
seems to be most commonly applied to the smaller members 
of the group of birds by ornithologists usually called Pigeons, 
Cahonbir; but no sharp distinction can be drawn between 
Pigeons and Do%'es, and in general literature the two words 
are used almost indifferently, while no one species can be 
pointed out to which the word Dove, taken alone, seems to be 
absolutely proper*'. 
[55] 
