Page:The Common Birds of Bombay.djvu/168

152 neck there is a miniature chessboard in red and black. The feet are red. That this kind of dove should be found only in Bombay is a very curious fact, which I do not know how to account for. India is rich in species of doves, some of which are widely distributed and some rather local. All over the plains of the Deccan two species divide the land. The large, pale-gray Ringdove (Turtur risoria) swarms in the open country, and the little Turtle Dove above-mentioned frequents the stations and gardens. In Poona it is the "common or garden" Dove, walking in the middle of the paths and uttering its broken disyllabic coo from the pricklypear hedges. But you may go down the whole west coast, from Bombay southwards to Malabar, without meeting it, or the Ringdove either. Their place is taken by the beautiful Spotted Dove, with its mournfully sweet voice. On the mainland and islands just across our harbour it is very plentiful; but I have never seen it in Bombay. The doves I have met with about Cumballa and Malabar Hills all belong to the species so common in Poona. I do not know whether it ever breeds in Bombay. Elsewhere it makes its nest in a prickly-pear, or any other thick bush, if you can apply the word nest to a flimsy platform of sticks, so thin that the two white eggs can be seen through it from below.

The name of the Plain Brown Dove in Jerdon is Turtur cambayensis but in later books T. senegalensis. The Spotted Dove is T. suratensis. These names are historical monuments, indicating the places from which the first specimens of these doves found their way to Europe.