. The birds of South Africa. Birds. COLUMBID^ TYMPANISTEIA 179 In the female the white of the face and under parts is tinged V7ith dusky ; the wing spots are black and not metallic. A young bird is brown above throughout, with transverse bands of rufous on the coverts and secondaries, and without the metallic spots ; the lower surface is grey and also shows signs of transverse rufous and brown bands on most of the feathers of the neck and breast. Distribution.—The Tambourine Dove is confined to the more wooded portions of Africa, south of the Gold Coast in the west, of Uganda in the centre, an
. The birds of South Africa. Birds. COLUMBID^ TYMPANISTEIA 179 In the female the white of the face and under parts is tinged V7ith dusky ; the wing spots are black and not metallic. A young bird is brown above throughout, with transverse bands of rufous on the coverts and secondaries, and without the metallic spots ; the lower surface is grey and also shows signs of transverse rufous and brown bands on most of the feathers of the neck and breast. Distribution.—The Tambourine Dove is confined to the more wooded portions of Africa, south of the Gold Coast in the west, of Uganda in the centre, and of Mombasa in the east. It has also been obtained in the islands of Fernando Po, Comoro and Fig. 57.—Head oi Tympanistria bicolor. x |i In South Africa the Tambourine Dove has been found only in the wooded districts along the South and East Coasts, and is apparently entirely absent from the central and western districts. The follow- ing are the only recorded localities : Cape Colony—Knysna (Layard and S. A. Mus.), Bast London, scarce (Eickard), King William's Town, scarce (Trevelyan), Port St. John's, January to March (Shortridge in S. A. Mus.); Natal—near Durban, common (Shelley, Eeid and S. A. Mus.); Zululand (Woodward). Habits.—The Tambourine Dove is only met with in thickly wooded districts, such as are usually found near the coast; it derives its name from its note; this is a soft and melancholy "coo coo," repeated slowly at first and afterwards more quickly, till finally it ends in a more or less prolonged rattle resembling that of a tam- bourine. Its note is often heard in the middle of the day, when other birds are silent. According to Ayres it is seen in pairs or singly, but not in companies; it is very active and lively, of rapid flight, and feeds on the seeds of trees which have dropped on the ground, the principal one being that of the castor oil Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may
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