THE BIRDS OF MESOPOTAMIA. 
945 
Zarudny in his list of birds of the Karun district places P. ceruleus ? as a com- 
mon resident. The only information Zarudny had concerning Gallinules he ob- 
tained from the Arabs who described to him the birds and nests, and he supposed 
that it would be this species which occurred in the Hawaizie marshes. Jourdain 
informs me (in lilt.) that he has 12 eggs of seisfanicus from Mesopotamia ; I know 
not how he arrived at the determination of these eggs, the average measure- 
ments of which he gives as 50x37’5 mm. (almost exactly the same as Blanford 
gives for the Indian bird) ; if he was going on the eggs themselves it would only 
show that the eggs of these two races cannot be differentiated, as I am not aware 
that seistanicus occurs in Mesopotamia at all. 
As Hartert described caspins from five birds from Lenkoran and two from 
E. Persia, it would seem highly probable that caspius is the same as seistanicus. 
F. cceriiletis does not occur at all ; specimens, which were referred to this, in the 
British Museum from Mesopotamia are in fact poliocephalus. 
317. Stock Dove. Columba senas. 
Columha cenas, L. (Syst. Nat. Ed. x, p. 162, 175S — Sweden). 
Woosnam found the Stock Dove plentiful on the Diz and Kerkha rivers in the 
Karun district, where Zarudny also records it as a winter visitor and passage 
migrant. Pitman thought he saw it at Sheik Saad in January and at Kut in 
November. There is a specimen from Baghdad in the British Museum obtained 
by Loftus. Cheesman met with it. Brooking has recorded that it was heard 
occasionally at Nasariyeh and Raniadi. Zarudny has described a TAce-hyrcana- 
from the S. Caspian region ; two specimens I have examined from near Shiraz 
in winter differ in no way from English ones. 
318. Wood Pigeon. Columba palumbus. 
Columba pal ambus palumbus, L. (Syst. Nat. Ed. x, p. 163, 1758 — Sweden). 
The Wood Pigeon is extraordinarily local in Mesopotamia. Round Basra it is 
not uncommon and as there are records of it there in small numbers from March 
to August, it must certainly breed there. Gumming records that, in one year 
only, many visited Fao and built in the date palms there, but left again as sud- 
denly as they arrived. At Baghdad it appears to be resident and fairly common 
and it must breed there also, though no nests were reported ; Cheesman however 
was assured by the natives that they do nest there in the gardens. It occurs and 
is probably resident in the foothill towns of the Karun district as Diz, where 
Woosnam records it, and Shush, where Cheesman saw and heard them on May 
3rd. Buxton, who was at Amara for some time, never met with it there nor at 
any other place during his wanderings except at Baghdad ; Pitman at Feluja, 
Museyib, and Samarra failed to see it and Logan Home only came across it at 
Basra. Brooking in his list of birds observed by him says the “ Ring Dove ” 
is common and breeds in the palm groves of the Euphrates, but he almost 
certainly refers to a Dove and not the Wood Pigeon. Hingston records it from 
Khanjedidah in Ajuil. Livesay obtained eggs but failed to supply any further 
details. 
It would certainly seem that this Pigeon is a bird of palm groves, but yet does 
not occur everywhere the palm does. Its status requires further examination. 
Cheesman says the cooing and love flights are exactly similar to those of the 
English bird, but he noticed a constant difference in the bill which he says is 
“ putty white,” nostril pinkish, instead of the usual coloration ; he verified this 
in about a dozen birds shot in winter. This difference is lost in dried skins, as 
those which I have seen from Mesopotamia differ in no way from the English 
birds nor could I detect any other difference by which they could be sepaiated ; 
to separate the Mesopotamian Wood Pigeon as a distinct race, therefore, only 
on coloration of bill in life would, I hardlj- tliink, serve an 5 ' useful purpose. 
