TUKTUE EISOEIFS. 
(THE COMMON INDIAN DOVE.) 
Columha risoria, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 285 (1760). 
Tiirtur risorius, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 238 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. 
p. 130 (1862); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1864, xiv. p. 59; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, 
p. 151 ; Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 397 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 218; Adam, t. c. 
p. 390; Hume, Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 506 (1875); id. Str. Feath. 1875, p. 165; 
Butler & Hume, ibid. 1876, p. 3; Fairbank, ibid. 1877, p. 409. 
T'urtur risoria, Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 481 (1864) ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 467; Legge, 
Ibis, 1874, p. 26; Ball, Str. Feath. 1878, vii. p. 224. 
The Common Eing-Love, The Collared Turtle-Bore of authors ; Turtle-Bove, Grey Dove, 
Europeans in Northern Province, Ceylon. Pomba de Cinsa, Portuguese in Ceylon ; 
Bhor fachta. Hind, in the south; Kalhak, Pauk-gJmghu, Bengal.; Pedda bella-guwa, 
Telugu (Jerdon); Eingel Buyven, Dutch in Ceylon ; Cally-iyrdd, Ceylonese Tamils (from 
“ Cally,” Euphorbia), Layard. 
Kobceya, Sinhalese. 
Adult male and female. Length 11-8 to 12-5 inches ; wing 6-2 to 6-5; tail 5T to 5-o : tarsus 0-95 to 1-0 ; middle toe 
and claw 1-05 to 1-2 ; bill to gape 0-9. 
Iris crimson ; orbital shin bluish white ; bill blackish ; legs and feet purple-red ; claws black. 
Head, nape, sides of neck, throat, fore neck, and breast delicate vinous grey, the head marked with ashy, the breast 
passing into delicate bluish ashy grey on the lower parts ; chin white ; round the hind neck to about the centre of 
its sides a black collar, the feathers above it edged with delicate bluish white ; lower part of hind neck, back, wing- 
coverts, upper tertials, upper tail-coverts, and central tail-feathers above brownish grey, suffused with bluish ashy 
on the sides of the rump, and with the scapulars and lesser wing-coverts edged pale; primaries dark brown, with 
jjale margins towards their tips ; primary-coverts and secondaries with their coverts, together with the feathers 
at the point of the wing, bluish ashy ; beneath, the basal part of all but the central rectrices black, with the terminal 
half white, the upper surface being suffused with bluish ashy, and washed outwardly with brownish towards the 
centre of the tail ; on the lateral outer web the black projects towards the tip ; under tail-coverts darker ashy than 
the lower parts, and the under wing-coverts ashy white. 
Ynnufj. Immature birds are said to be reddish above; some that I have seen have the head vinous grey; these are 
probably not adults. 
OU. A comparison of examples from Kamptee with my Ceylonese skins enables me to say that our birds are not 
characterized by any tints not present in Indian birds ; the birds in question are identical with mine as regards 
the hues of the back, head, and undeq)arts : wing 6-4 inches. The specimens from Gor es Safiek, Palestine, are 
slightly paler than mine in the back, but otherwise tlie same ; they are slightly lai-ger — wing 0-6 and 6’7 inches 
respectively. A Baluchistan skin is brow'n on the back and head, and the chest is more ruddy than others. 
Mr. Hume separates the Turlcestau race (Str. Featli. 1874, p. 519) as T. stoliczTcce on account of its larger size, broader 
ajid wffiter nuchal collar, and more deeply tipped tail-feathers. The wing in his type specimen measures 7‘35 inches. 
There is much difference of opinion as to which species the Domestic Eing-Dove sprung from originally; Blyth says:— 
“ Of several kindred races I do not know one that can be satisfactorily assigned as the true origin of the common 
cage-bird.” The note of the latter is quite different from T. risorius and it is smaller. The two interbreed well. 
Distribution. — The Turtle-Dove is remarkably local in Ceylon, being apparently a bird of the driest districts 
of the north of the Jaffna peninsula and the west coast down as far as Puttalam. The note is so very peculiar 
and so totally unlike that of T. suratensis, the common Ceylon species, that it cannot fail to serve as a sure 
