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The Cape Dove. 
inner wing-coverts adorned with two large shining patches of 
blue-black; tail black and white; breast and abdomen creamy- 
white ; beak orange at the tip merging into crimson at the base ; 
legs and feet deep fleshy-red. The tail is long and pointed. 
Female — A washed-out repHca of the male with white face mask. 
Juvenile Plumage. — Closely resembles the female parent, 
but is greyer in tone; and tlie crown, neck, and median wing- 
coverts with black or blackish bands; beak black; legs and feet 
purplish. 
Wild Life. — It frequents wooded steppes, farms, cattle 
kraals, and gardens. Its flight is undulating and weak. The 
nest, a fragile structure of twigs, is mostly placed in palms and 
acacia trees, sometimes on the ground — the late Col. Horsbrugh 
found it in the latter position at Bloemfontein, and briefly 
describes it as follows : " One of the nests was on the top of a 
" furrow in a ploughed field, and not a bush was near it. I 
" presume the eggs must have been near hatching time, as 
" the httle hen would only go a few feet away from her 
" treasures, and as soon as I moved away she flew to them at 
" once and settled herself down in a most confidential 
" manner." 
It spends most of its time upon the ground. During 
the breeding season the males are very quarrelsome. The call 
is Hoo-roo-roo, and, as it is uttered the tail is outspread and 
extended upwards. 
In Captivity. — Though they have never bred with me, I 
have found them alert, interesting, and very pleasing occupants 
of the aviary. With me they spent much oT their time upon 
the ground picking out seed from the growing grass and from 
clumps of the same thrown in for them. Their flight is weak 
but frequently indulged in; it is finch-like and undulating. 
Earlier writers have described them as delicate and needing 
warm quarters during the cold months of the year. I have 
not found this to be so, and have had no difficulty in keeping 
them out of doors all the year, and, strange to say, I have found 
the hens the more enduring. During the war a hen, which had 
already spent several years in a .Surrey aviary, was an inmate 
of my largest aviary for three years, and was certainly one of the 
cheeriest birds in the aviary. However, they do not like damp. 
