on 20/8/01 7:16 PM, Lawrie Conole at wrote:
>
> Last year in Kyrgyzstan I found the Laughing Turtle-Dove to be a common
> urban bird in the capital city of Bishkek. And I felt no guilt in admiring
> them as they're indigenous there ;-) Are the ones in WA from one of the
> really tiny ssp? I couldn't believe how small the Kyrgyz ones were - not
> much bigger than Peaceful Dove. Quite a contrast with the overfed
> blimp-like Spotted TDs from around here.
>
> L.
>
My impression of the Rottnest Laughing Turtle-doves was that they were
appreciably smaller than the Spotted, and I had mentally equated them with
Peaceful Dove size, but it appears I am wrong:
"Birds of Rottnest Island" by Denis Suanders and Perry de Rebeira give:
Laughing Turtle-dove 24-27 cm
Spotted Turtle-dove 28-32 cm
And the Readers Digest Book of Australian Birds:
Laughing Turtle-dove 25-27 cm
Spotted Turtle-dove 27-28 cm
Peaceful Dove 19-21 cm
I guess that if the L T-d that kept wandering into our unit on Rottnest and
doing an amusing impression of skating on the highly polished floor was only
24 cm and the S T-ds I saw were close to 32 cm, it would have given me the
impression of an appreciable size difference.
Anyone know the origin of the name "Turtle-dove"?
Syd Curtis
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