Tail graduated; its outermost feather 40 mm. shorter than the central pair; a wide band of feathers on neck with bifurcated tips.
48. SPILOPELIA TIGRINA (Temminck and Knip).
MALAY SPOTTED DOVE.
- Columba tigrina Temminck and Knip, Hist. Nat. des Pig. (1808–11), 1, pl. 43.
- Turtur tigrinus Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1893), 21, 440.
- Spilopelia tigrina Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 80; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1901), 1, 98; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 14.
Balabac (Everett); Palawan (Whitehead, McGregor, Celestino, White). Burma, Malay Peninsula, Greater and Lesser Sunda Islands, Celebes, Moluccas.
Adult (sexes alike).—Head dark gray with a vinaceous wash; forehead and face lighter; lores with a small black spot; bifurcated feathers of neck black with white tips; feathers of upper parts brown with paler, dull, rusty edges and dark shaft-stripes, the stripes widest on tertials and wing-coverts; distal coverts in each series pearl-gray, outer webs white; quills brown with narrow pale edges; lower parts vinous; paler, nearly white on chin; abdomen white washed with buff; under tail-coverts white; three outer tail-feathers black broadly tipped with white; next pair black, tipped with gray; two central feathers uniform brown, next pair black with a broad, terminal, brown band. “Iris reddish pearl; bill black; feet pinkish.” (Wallace.) Length, about 300; wing, 145; tail, 150; exposed culmen, 17; tarsus, 22.
Young.—“More rufescent above and beneath; feathers of the hind neck of a pale brown with grayish edges.” (Salvadori.)
The Malay spotted dove occurs in small numbers as a winter visitant to Balabac and Palawan. Whitehead says it is “scarce and very local” in Palawan; Celestino took several specimens at Puerto Princesa.