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.
Subfamily GEOPELIINÆ.
Genus GEOPELIA Swainson, 1837.
Tip of first primary very slender; tail long and greatly graduated,
and its feathers very slender. This genus contains the smallest
Philippine doves.