946 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII L 
Six specimens examined : 9 , Baglidad, 21-9-17 (P. A. B.); 9, Baghdad, 
14-1 19, 22-1-19 (two); $, 11-2-19, 9-2-19 (P. Z. C. and R. E. C.). 
The eastern form ci.yiotis does not, so far as I am aware, occur. 
319. Rock Dove. Columba li via. 
Columha livia gaddi, Zar. and Loud. (Orn. Monats. 1906, p. 133 — 
Kanin R.). 
Common and resident wherever suitable places exist ; it swarms in most of the 
larger towns, as at Mosul and Baghdad, and is semi-domesticated, all being how- 
ever pure blue, none of the mongrel kinds seen in most places having as yet been 
introduced. In the towns it frequents houses and particularly mosques and so 
enjoys a considerable amount of protection. Elsewhere it inhabits ruins, and the 
arch at Ctesiphon swarms with them ; all along the cliffs in the Tekrit and Samarra 
districts it is abundant, and it nests in the Euphrates Barrage at Hindiyeh and in 
wells at many places. It is common enough in the towns of the Karun district and 
occurs in the Jebel Hamrin, as at Mendali, in cliffs many miles from any habita- 
tion. Where no suitable sites exist for it as at Kut, Ali Gharbi, Sheik Saad and 
Fao it is rare or absent. There is nothing very particular to note about its nest- 
ing habits ; as elsewhere more than one brood is reared and Pitman records fresh 
eggs and fledged young in June. At the Barrage no nest is made, the eggs being 
deposited on the bare shelves. 
Five skins examined: Mendali, 2-8-18 (P. A. B ); Adhaim, 15-11-17 ; 
Samaira, 7 3-18 (C.R.P.) ; Amara, 9-2-18 (P.Z.C. and R. E. C.); Shustar. 
18-1-18 (F. M. B.). 
In addition to these five I have examined two others from “ Mesopota- 
mia one from Biridjik ; one from Kharag Is. off Bushire ; three from 
Palestine ; one from Muscat and a very large series from Afghanistan, Belu- 
chistan, X. W. India and Turkestan. As regards the Palestine, Mesopotani’an 
and S. W. Persian birds these are not the typical race, the upper parts are distinct- 
ly paler and the birds are smaller. Rock pigeons vary very considerably through- 
out their range and doubtless introduced stock in some places upsets all attempts 
at classification into races; but if one is going to recognize races of this pigeon at all, 
one must consider what race the Mesopotamian bird belongs to; it is certainly not 
livia as already pointed out, and it is equally certainly not intermedia. Several 
observers thought they saw intermedia in Mesopotamia because they saw Rock 
pigeons with bluish rumps. From the very large series I have seen from the 
above mentioned localities there was not a single example of intermedia (which 
is a fairly distinct race from Central and South India), and as for the colour 
of the rump in our Mesopotamian birds, it goes for nothing; some are pure 
white, others pale blue grey, and some are white tinged with this colour, 
but none has the slate grey of inter?nedia ; it is purely an individual variation. 
Zarudny and Loudon described gaddi from the Karun river, their description 
tallies well with our Mesopotamian birds and the latter are all quite similar to a 
topo-type of gaddi from Shustar ; quite the same also are the three birds from 
Palestine and the birds from Biridjik and Kharag Island — all are rather pale 
and rather small (wings 21.5 — 227 mm.) and therefore I consider palestinxB of 
Zedlitz (J. F. 0. 1912, p. 339) to be a .synonym of gaddi. The Muscat bird is paler 
than any others I have seen and more from this locality are desirable. 
320. Turtle Dove. Streptopelia turtur. “ Tabaan ” 
1. Streptopelia turtur arenicolor (Hart.) (Novit. Zool. 1894, p. 42 — 
Fao). 
2. Streptopelia turtur turtur (I,.) (Syst. Nat. Ed. x. p. 164, 1758 — 
England). 
The eastern race of the Turtle Dove is an exceedingly common summer visitor 
to the whole of our area and also a passage migrant through the country. The 
