NDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES a os yr r ne i ihe H THE ASHY-HEADED GREEN PIGEON—OSMOTRERON P. PHAYRE]/ (4 Nat. Size—Male on right, female on left.) : FRONTISPIECE i INDIAN PIGEONS (2, rac AND i) DOVES BY KE. C, STUART BAKER Author of * Indian Ducks and their Allies.” WITH TWENTY-SEVEN COLOURED PLATES FROM DRAWINGS BY H. GRONVOLD anp G. E. LODGE. WITHERBY & CO. 326 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON JG) lee} Printed by WITHERBY & OO. at their Printing Press in Middle Row Place, London PREFACE. My reasons for writing a volume upon our Indian Pigeons and Doves are several, and I trust will be deemed sufficient by my readers. In the first place, there has as yet been no book published which deals with these most beautiful birds from the point of view of the Sportsman and Field-Naturalist as well as from that of the Scientific or Museum-Naturalist, and as this is a gap in the records of our Indian Avifauna which badly needs filling, I may be forgiven for trying to bridge it. Skins—as skins—are, without doubt, full of interest, and especially so, perhaps, when the person studying them is more or less intimate with the life-histories of the birds themselves ; but Pigeons are well worthy of study in ways other than by dry skins. To the Field-Naturalist they are birds full of interest; to the Aviculturist they are birds more charming and worthy of culture than has hitherto been generally admitted, and to the Sportsman they offer an object well worthy of attention, for he must have a quick eye, a sure hand, and considerable perseverance and patience before he has mastered their habits and is able to find them and, when found, bring them to bag. Books referring to Pigeons and Doves, of course, abound; but they are difficult of access and expensive to purchase. Volume XXI of the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, by Count Salvadori, is the standard work on these birds; but one does not want twenty- seven volumes of a work, at a cost of something well over fifty pounds, for the sake of Pigeons only. In the same way, Blanford’s Vol. IV of the Avifauna of British India deals with this family very thoroughly ; but the volume is one of four, and contains much matter besides such as refers to the birds we are now considering ; and, moreover, it tells us but little about the Pigeon itself, except as a museum-specimen. Jerdon contains rather fuller accounts, but, wonderful book as this still is, it was written nearly sixty years ago, and cannot but be somewhat out of date, as well as being difficult to obtain. Hume’s volumes of Stray Feathers have odd notes full of interest when one can find them, and in the same vi INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES way many other Natural History journals have references to Pigeons, but they also are scattered and difficult to find. Finally, so many of my friends and others have asked me to write a book on the Indian Pigeons, that I think there must be some grounds for hoping that a volume upon them will be kindly received. From a scientific point of view it is probable that this book will undergo considerable criticism, for it introduces for the first time into India the trinominal system—that is to say, the system which recognises subspecies. But India is essentially a country in which we find such a system necessary : for the variations in climate are so great, according to elevation, humidity, etc., that the same species in different localities are bound to undergo some degree of evolution which shall render them suitable to their surroundings. On the other hand, the variations so caused—though constant in definite areas —are often indeterminate in the country which links these areas together, and which is itself often intermediate in character. Then again we find in India parallel evolution going on in districts very far apart. For instance, the little Bustard-Quail (T'urnixz tatjoor) in the dry area of Southern Burma nearly approaches the same form as that found in the drier portions of Central India. So too, with our Pigeons : we find our very first bird, the Bengal Green Pigeon, having well- defined variations occurring both in Burma and in Southern India, yet in the intervening countries many birds cannot be placed with certainty under either form. It would appear, also, that Pigeons and Doves are birds very susceptible to climatic variations, for we known that Beebe, one of the leading American Ornithologists, has obtained different specific phases of plumage in the same identical individual by merely trans- ferring it from a very dry area to others more and yet more humid. Geographical variations I therefore accept as sufficient reason for the creation of subspecies as long as they are constant within a given area, though intermediate areas may be inhabited by inter- mediate forms. Broadly speaking, in giving geographical forms the status of sub- species, I have acted upon the following lines: When I have found differences in the plumage or in the size of birds, inhabiting different areas, which are quite plain to anyone’s observation, I accept them as PREFACE vil constituting good species or subspecies, the former if they are not linked to one another by individuals which are intermediate, the latter if they are so linked. At the same time I have not gone out of my way to hunt for minute differences in tint or in measurements, but have merely admitted them when they are too plain to be over- looked. In regard to nomenclature I have accepted the rules laid down by the latest International Zoological Congress and take my names according to strict priority and with effect from the date of the tenth edition of Linnaeus. In following accepted rules it is impossible to avoid tautonomy : I am therefore compelled to show the bird first described of the various subspecies with its specific name duplicated. Thus it is imperative to name the Bengal Green Pigeon Crocopus phoenicopterus phoenicopterus, instead of C. p. typicus, and the geographical variations or subspecies must be called C. p. viridifrons and C. p. chlorogaster. In classification generally I have adhered as closely as possible to that of Blanford in the Fauna of British India series, though this is, to some extent, altered by the use of the trinomial system and by the fact that a few other forms have had to be added to his list. An attempt has been made in the following chapters to collate, as far as possible, all information recorded up to date, and to add as many sporting and field notes as have been obtainable, together with a certain amount of original matter. Original matter, however, of this nature is very hard to obtain before a book is written, but it is to be hoped that once written and published readers will not be slow to become writers also and to add their quota of knowledge to that which has been previously recorded, whilst others may well be able to show where the present volume is incomplete or incorrect. The total number of species and subspecies dealt with in this work is fifty-one, Blanford having recognized forty-five of them as good species. The books referred to in the list of synonyms do not include all works of reference, for, as far as possible, only those have been noted which refer to the birds as occurring in India, with the addition from time to time of those which contain matter of importance to readers in India, such as the book in which the bird itself, or any- thing of importance concerning it, is first mentioned or described ; viii INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES references to the Ibis, the Zoological Proceedings, etc., have nearly all been omitted. On the other hand, as far as possible, full references have been given to Stray Feathers, the Asiatic Society’s Records, the Bombay Natural History Society’s Journal, and other Indian publications. My thanks are especially due to Mr. Ogilvie-Grant and the Staff of the Bird Section of the British Museum, for the use of the Bird- room and access to the skins therein, as well as for the constant courtesy shown me and help rendered, without which this book could never have been written. Finally, an apology is due to my readers for the egoism in the whole programme, but it is difficult to avoid this when writing upon a family of birds about which so little has as yet been recorded from a Sportsman’s point of view. E.C.S. B. CONTENTS. PREFACE... List oF PLATES BIBLIOGRAPHY oon a»r wh = . Bengal Green Pigeon (Crocs piiene otents phockicomerss) . Burmese Green Pigeon (Crocopus phoenicopterus viridifrons) ... . Southern Green Pigeon (Crocopus phoenicopterus chlorogaster) . Ashy-headed Green Pigeon (Osmotreron pompadora phayret) ... . Grey-fronted Green Pigeon (Osmotreron pompadora affinis) ... . Pompadour Green Pigeon (Osmotreron pompadora pompadora) . Andamanese Green Pigeon (Osmotreron pompadora chloroptera) . Cinnamon-headed Green Pigeon (Osmotreron fulvicollis) . Orange-breasted Green Pigeon (Osmotreron bisincta domvillit) . Lesser Orange-breasted Green Pigeon (Osmotreron bisincta bisincta) ... . Pink-necked Green Pigeon (Osmotreron vernans) . Large Thick-billed Green Pigeon (Butreron capellit) . Thick-hilled Green Pigeon (T'reron nipalensis) ... . Pin-tailed Green Pigeon (Sphenocercus apicauda) . Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon (Sphenocercus sphenura) ... . Green Imperial Pigeon (Carpophaga aenea aenea) . Nicobar Imperial Pigeon (Carpophaga aenea insularis) . Hodgson’s Imperial Pigeon (Ducula insignis insignis) a . Grey-headed Imperial Pigeon (Ducula insignis griseicapilla) ... . Jerdon’s Imperial Pigeon (Ducula insignis cwprea) . Pied Imperial Pigeon (Myristicivora bicolor) . Nicobar Pigeon (Calaenas nicobarica) . Bronze-winged or Emerald Dove (hatconkabe indica) . Blue Rock-Pigeon (Columba livia livia) .. 3 ee . Indian Blue Rock-Pigeon (Columba livia isedialy. . Blue Hill-Pigeon (Columba rupestris) . Eastern Stock-Pigeon (Columba oenas eversmannt) . Snow-Pigeon (Columba leuconota) . Speckled Wood-Pigeon (Dendrotreron eageonsy. . Eastern Wood- citer ae: -Dove, or Cushat t (Palms palm casiotis) . Nilgiri Wood- EPipeun (Absacomits enhensions)'. mi PAGE 100 104 106 110 114 121 130 135 144 148 152 156 160 164 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES . Ceylon Wood-Pigeon (Alsocomus torringtonit) ... . Ashy Wood-Pigeon (Alsocomus pulchricollis) . Purple Wood-Pigeon (Alsocomus puniceus) . Andamanese Wood-Pigeon (Alsocomus hellupiboides) | . Turtle-Dove (Streptopelia turtur turtur) .. . Persian Turtle-Dove (Streptopelia turtur iipenicota) . Indian Rufous Turtle-Dove, or pyre s Turtle-Dove > (Streplopelia turtur meena) . Rufous Turtle-Dove (Stremonetia| turtur Noptentaisa) . Indian Turtle-Dove (Streptopelia turtur ferrago) . Spotted Dove (Streptopelia suratensis suratensis) . Malay or Burmese Spotted Dove (Streptopelia suratensis signin) . Little Brown Dove (Streptopelia cambayensis) .. . Indian Ring-Dove (Streptopelia risoria Psomay h . Burmese Ring-Dove (Streptopelia risoria xanthocycla) . Indian Red Turtle-Dove (Oenopopelia tranquebarica tranquebarica) ... . Burmese Red Turtle-Dove (Oenopopelia tranquebarica humilis) . Bar-tailed Cuckoo-Dove (Macropygia tusalia) ... . Andaman Cuckoo-Dove (Macropygia rufipennis) . Little Malay Cuckoo-Dove (Macropygia ruficeps) 51. Barred Ground-Dove (Geopelia striata) ... INDEX 168 172 176 180 186 188 190 196 199 203 210 214 219 225 229 234 238 244 248 254 257 LIST OF PLATES. Osmotreron p. phayret (Ashy-headed Green Pigeon) (Frontispiece) PLATE n AGE. 1. Crocopus ph. viridifrons (Burmese Green Pigeon) ... ous sob) | AIR) 2. Osmotreron fulvicollis (Cinnamon-headed Green Pigeon) ... «=. 46 3. Osmotreron b. bisincta (Lesser Orange-breasted Green Pigeon) ... 56 4, Butreron capellii (Large Thick-billed Green Pigeon) nes “2 164 5. Treron nipalensis (Thick-billed Green Pigeon) a ie Spy GS 6. Sphenocercus apicauda (Pin-tailed Green Pigeon) ... ses aeon amd 7. Carpophaga a. aenea (Green Imperial Pigeon) sds af teed 8. Ducula i. griseicapilla (Grey-headed Imperial Pigeon) _... a) 104 9. Myristicivora bicolor (Pied Imperial Pigeon) sec ss 7) LEO 10. Calaenas nicobarica (Nicobar Pigeon) En ra 52 son 1l. Chalcophaps indica (Bronze-winged Dove) ... a3 au ose 2 12. Columba rupestris (Blue Hill-Pigeon) ae Ses ses .. 144 13. Columba o. eversmanni (Eastern Stock-Pigeon) ses sis .. 148 14. Columba leuconota (Snow-Pigeon) ... es A is aeons 15. Dendrotreron hodgsoni (Speckled Wood-Pigeon) __... 333 ... 156 16. Palumbus p. casiotis (Eastern Wood-Pigeon) aes Se boo, If 17. Alsocomus pulchricollis (Ashy Wood-Pigeon) a ss cea 18. Alsocomus puniceus (Purple Wood-Pigeon) ... es hs .. 176 19. Alsocomus palumboides (Andamanese Wood-Pigeon) des ... 180 20. Streptopelia t. meena (Indian Rufous Turtle-Dove)... ars se 190) 21. Streptopelia s. tigrina (Malay Spotted Dove) Sr wt ... 210 22. Streptopelia cambayensis (Little Brown Dove) eee es .. 214 23. Ocnopopelia t. humilis (Burmese Red Turtle-Dove) Ses .. 234 24, Macropygia tusalia (Bar-tailed Cuckoo-Dove) aD ve ... 238 25. Macropygia rufipennis (Andaman Cuckoo-Dove) ... es .. 244 26. Geopelia striata (Barred Ground-Dove) Ax ae on ... 254 oy is ‘a MA | i Ai ra vain i i tes a | BIBLIOGRAPHY. The following is a list of the principal works herein referred to, and explains the abbreviations used. Aitken, Com. B. Bom. Ann. Mag. N.H. Barnes, B. Bom. Blanf., Avi. Brit. I. Blanf., E. Persia Bp., Con. Av. Blyth, Cal. J.N.H. Blyth, Cat. B.M.A.S.B. Blyth, J.A.8.B. Blyth and Wald., B. Burma Briss., Orn. Everett, J.S.B.A.S. Gu., Syst. Nat. Gray, List Gall. B.M. Gray, in Griff. An. Kingd. ArrKEN (E. H.) : The Common Birds of Bombay, a reprint of papers published in The Times of India. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (1841-1913). Barnes (H. D.): Handbook of the Birds of the Bombay Presidency (1885). Buanrorp (W. T.): Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma; Birds, Vols. I-IV (1889-98). Bianrorp (W. T.): Hastern Persia; Vols. I and Ti, Journeys of the Persian Boundary Commission, 1870-71-72 (1876). Bonaparte (Minne Cuartes Lucien): Con- spectus Generum Avium (1850-57). Buytu (E.), in the Caleutta Journal of Natura History (1841-46). Buytu’s Catalogue of the Birds in the Museum of the Asiatic Society (1849). Buytu (E.): Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1832-1913. Buyts (E.): Catalogue of Mammals and Birds of Burma (1875); reprint from the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Brisson (M. J.): (1760). Everert (A.): Journal Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 20 (1889). GMELIN : Systema Naturae (1788). Ornithologia, Vols. I-VI Gray (GrorcE Roperts): List of the Speci- mens of Birds in the Collection of the British Museum, Part 11I—Gallinae (1844). Gray (J. E.) Grirriy (E.): The Animal Kingdom (1827-35). xiv INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES Gray, Cat. Hodg. Coll. B.M. 2nd ed. Gray and Hard. Harington, B. Burma Hodg., As. Res. Hume, Cat. Hume, Nests and Eggs Hume and Hen., Lah. to Yark. Jerdon, Ill. Orn. Jerdon, B.I. Jerdon, Madr. J.L.S. J.A.S.B. J.B.N.HS. Lath., Ind. Orn. Lath., Syn. Legge, B. Cey. Linn., Mant. Linn, Syst. Nat. Oates, B. Burma Oates, Cat. Eggs B.M. Gray (J. E.): Catalogue of the Specimens and Drawings of Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Fishes of Nepal and Tibet, 2nd ed. (1863). Gray (J. E.): Illustrations of Indian Zoology, chiefly selected from the collection of Major General Hardwicke, Vols. I-XII (1830-34). Harinaton (Mayor H. H.): The Birds of Burma (1909). Hopason (B. H.): Asiatic Researches 1836, or Transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal for inquiring into the History, the Antiquities, the Arts and Sciences and Litera- ture of Asia. Vols. I-XX (1785-36). Hume’s Catalogue of Indian Birds: a reprint from Vol. VIII of Stray Feathers. Hume (A. O.): Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds (1873-75). Hume (A. O.) and Henprerson (G.): Lahore to Yarkand (1873). JERDON (I. C.): Ornithology (1847). Jerpon (I. C.): The Birds of India, Vols. I-III (1862-64). JeRpon (I. C.): Madras Journal of Literature (1833-64). i Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1832-1913). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, Vols. I-X XI (1886-1913). LatHam (J.): Index Ornithologicus (1790). LarHam (J.): A General Synopsis of Birds (1781-1885). Lecce (W. V.): A History of the Birds of Ceylon (1878-80). Linnagus (C.): Mantissa Plantarum (1771). Linnakus (C.): Systema Naturae, 10th ed. (1758). Oates (E. W.): A Handbook to the Birds of British Burmah (1883). Oates (E. W.): Catalogue of the Collection of Birds’ Eggs in the British Museum (1901), I-IV (1901-12). Illustrations of Indian P.Z.S. Proc. N.M.U.S. Salvadori, Cat. B.M., X XI. Scop., Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr. Seebohm, B. Jap. Empire Sharpe, Hand-List Birds Str. Feath. Temm., Pig. Temm., Pl. Coll. T.Z.S. Wagl., Sys. Av. BIBLIOGRAPHY XV Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1835-1913). Proceedings of the National Museum, U.S.A. Satvaport : Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XXI (1893). Scoport (J. A.): Deliciae Florae et Faunae Insubrieae (1786-88). SresoHm (H.): The Birds of the Japanese Empire (1890). Saree: Hand-List of the Genera and Species of Birds, Vols. I-V (1899-09). Stray Feathers: A Journal of Ornithology for India and its Dependencies, Vols. I-XII (1873-99). Les Pigeons: par Mapame Kniep and C. J. TremMinok (1811) (1808-43). TEMMINCK (C. J.) et Murrrrev Laver Nouveau Recueil de Planches.colorées d’Oiseaux, Vols. I-V (1820-39). Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, Vols. I-XX (1855-1913). Wacter (J.): Systema Avium. ORDER—COLUMBAE. PIGEONS. T IS now an accepted fact amongst naturalists, whether museum I or field, that the Pigeons and Doves are more satisfactorily placed in an Order by themselves, than in conjunction with any other of the game-birds. In their anatomy Pigeons are very closely related to the Gallina- ceous birds, and yet more closely to the Péerocletes, or Sand-Grouse, though they differ widely from either of these groups in having their young born naked and helpless, a character which has induced some writers to classify them with the Passeres. Certain other anatomical characteristics would seem to show their affinity to both the Strigidae, (Owls) and the Vulturidae (Vultures), greatly as they differ from both of these in general formation, structure, and external appearance. On the whole their place among Aves would seem to come best next to the Pterocletes, where Blanford has located them. Famity COLUMBIDAE. Salvadori, in Volume XXI of the British Museum Catalogue of Birds, divides the Pigeons into five families, but Blanford does not recognize these differentiations as being of so great value, and combines all our Indian birds into one family, though doubtless he would have accepted the Gouridae and Didunculidae as separate families had he not been dealing with Indian birds only. The family Gouridae contains the magnificent Crown-Pigeons of the Papuan Islands, birds which differ to some extent in internal con- struction as well as external appearance from other Pigeons, and the Didunculidae contains the one small Pigeon Didunculus strigirostris of the Samoan Islands. Salvadori’s other three families are the Z'reronidae or “‘ Green Pigeons,” which frequent and roost in trees; the Columbidae or True B 2 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES Pigeons, which frequent trees principally, but can also walk and run well; and the Peristeridae or Doves, which are much given to walking on the ground. Following Blanford, I unite all Indian Pigeons and Doves in the one family Columbidae, which contains the structural features of the Order Columbae in so far as that refers to the regions with which we are dealing. The internal characters are as follows: Palate schizognathous, nostrils schizorhinal ; basipterygoid processes present ; dorsal vertebrae heterocoelus, cervical vertebrae fifteen in number; sternum with four deep posterior notches, the inner pair of which may be converted into foramina; the external lateral processes are much shorter than the internal; furcula U-shaped. Deep plantar tendons united with a vinculum, the hallux connected with the flexor longus hallucis, and three front toes with the flexor perforans digitorum. Ambiens muscle sometimes present ; the femoro-caudal, semitendinosus, accessory semi- tendinosus, and accessory femoro-caudal all present in Indian species ; oil-gland nude or wanting ; caeca and gall-bladder sometimes present, sometimes absent; both carotids always present. The external characteristics are: Upper mandible having the most slender portion posterior to the tip, the basal portion, which contains the nostrils, is covered with a cere or soft skin ; the tip is swollen, hard and convex, giving the appearance of having a small knob. The four toes are on the same level, webless, with the hallux or hind toe well developed ; the soles are broad, but differ in degree in this respect in different subfamilies, being most greatly expanded in the T’reronidae or Green Pigeons. Wings aquincubital, with eleven primaries and the fifth secondary wanting, long and pointed with close-set coverts. Spinal feather-tract well defined on the neck and forked on the interscapulary region; after-shaft either not present or only rudimentary. SUBFAMILIES. When we come to consider the subfamilies into which our Indian Pigeons are divided, we find that the only difference between the classi- fication of Salvadori and Blanford, is that the former adds two sub- families, ie. the Macropygiinae and Turturinae. The first subfamily Salvadori gives as one of his family Columbidae, and the latter as a sub- family of his family Peristeridae, whereas Blanford unites both in one subfamily Columbinae. This shows well how very artificial the distinc- tions are upon which naturalists rely in dividing Pigeons into families and subfamilies, for the genus Macropygia is far more closely allied in habits, plumage, shape, and everything else to the Doves than to the Pigeons. As Blanford says, “‘ Even the subfamilies of the Pigeons and Doves are founded on distinctions, several of which are not usually regarded as more than generic. It is rather in deference to the usual practice than from conviction of their real existence that some of the following subfamilies are adopted.” For the sportsman and the field-naturalist, the divisions adopted by Blanford are very convenient, and there is no scientific reason against their adoption, even if in every case there is no very scientific reason in their favour. I therefore follow Blanford, and accept his six subfamilies, as given in the fourth volume of the Avifawna of British India. Key to the Subfamilies. A. Tail of fourteen feathers : a. No ambiens muscle present : a’ Oil-gland present se cae Sor aa Treroninae. b’ Oil-gland absent ... oi dee 56 = Geopeliinae. 6. Ambiens muscle present sie Soe aa ... Carpophaginae. B. Tail of twelve feathers : c. Ambiens and oil-gland present ; no caeca : ce’ Tarsus longer than middle toe ... 0¢ ... Calaenadinae. d’ Tarsus moderate See ies ccs oes Phabinae. d. Ambiens, oil-gland, and caeca present ac ee Columbinae. The above scientific key, relying as it does almost entirely on anatomic characteristics, may present some difficulties to the sportsman, B 2 4 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES and the following key to our Indian subfamilies will be easier to work by in the field :— A. Tail of fourteen feathers : a. Plumage principally green, with one or two con- spicuous yellow bands on the wings; wings always over 5 in. and always under 8.5 in. ; soles of feet and toes considerably broadened ... Treroninae. b. Plumage dull, and greyish all over; wings always under 5 in.; soles of feet not much broadened ... bee sie ef ane ; c. Plumage various, but size large and wings always over 8.5 in.; soles of feet not much broadened Carpophaginae. Geopeliinae. B. Tail of twelve feathers : d. Long metallic green neck-hackles __... che ...( Calaenadinae. e. No neck-hackles : a’ Plumage above dark and metallic-green ; bill red ; wings under 6 in. ee a et Phabinae. b’ Plumage sometimes glossy and to some extent metallic about neck, but in such cases the wing is over 8 in. The other genera have dull plumage with no gloss anywhere __... Columbinae. Susramity TRERONINAE. This subfamily is very well represented in India, no less than five out of its seven genera being found within our limits. All five of these cenera contain what are generally known in India as “‘ Green Pigeons ”— gomparatively small Pigeons which may be known at a glance by their beautifully soft green plumage, often mixed with maroon or lilac on the shoulders or back, and always with one, and sometimes with two, bold yellow bars across the wings. By ear, too, these lovely birds may always be identified as belonging to the Treroninae, their musical whistling-call being quite unlike the coo of any Dove or Pigeon of other groups. The birds of this subfamily are typically perchers, living almost entirely on the fruit of large trees, and they have the soles of their feet curiously broad, being a great deal wider than the toes above. The tarsi are short and stout, and are covered with densly growing short feathers on the upper part in front. The genera, which again are to a great extent employed as a matter SUBFAMILIES AND GENERA 5 of convenience rather than of anatomical necessity, are fairly easily divisible by simple characteristics in outward form. Key to the Genera. A. A deep notch in inner web of third primary ; tail neither greatly graduated nor with central tail-feathers prolonged : a. Horny part of bill does not extend along culmen to edge of feathers of fore-head : a’ First three primaries acuminate, legs yellow Crocopus. b’ First three primaries not acuminate ; legs red : a” Horny part of bill less than two-thirds of culmen Osmotreron. b” Horny part of bill n more than two- thirds of culmen af Butreron. 6. Horny part of bill extends ae ‘he ieee to the feathers of fore-head . Treron. B. Inner web of third primary with no notch; tail much graduated and lengthened ag Bey ... Sphenocercus. Genus CROCOPUS. This genus contains but one species which is, however, easily divisible into three geographical subspecies with well-defined char- acteristics which overlap no more than such characteristics generally do where the respective ranges meet. This genus, with the exception of Butreron, is the largest of our Indian “ Green Pigeons,” having a wing of about 7.5 in., whereas none of the others exceed 7 in., and some are under 6. Itis also,in one form or another, the most widespread, being found throughout the greater part of the countries with which we are now dealing. A very distinctive feature of this bird is its yellow legs and feet, all our other species of this subfamily having red legs and feet. Key to the Subspecies. A. Breast yellow; abdomen grey; upper tail-coverts and base of tail both yellowish and not contrasting... C. ph. phoenicopterus. B. Yellow of fore-head extended to crown; upper tail- coverts grey contrasting with yellowish base of tail _C. ph. viridifrons. C. Under-parts unicoloured yellow; tail-feathers with very little or no trace of yellowish-green... ae, ... C. ph. chlorogaster. (1) CROCOPUS PHOENICOPTERUS PHOENICOPTERUS. THE BENGAL GREEN PIGEON. Columba phoenicoptera Lath., Ind. Orn., IL p. 597 (1790). Columba militaris (part) Temm., Pig., pt. 1 (1808). Columba hardwickit Gray, in Griff. An. Kingd., VIII (1829). Treron phoenicoptera Blyth, J.A.S.B., XIV p. 849; id., Cat. B.M., p. 229; Gray, Cat. Hodg. Coll. B.M., 2nd ed. p. 66. Crocopus phoenicopterus Jerdon, B.I., IL p. 447; Godw.-Aus., J.A.S.B., XXXIX pt. a p. 272; Str. Feath., I p. 390; Ball, ib., IT p. 432; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 491; id., Cat. no. 772; id., Str. Feath., IV p. 2; Cripps, ib., VII p. 296; Scully, ib., VIII p. 339; Oates, in Hume’s Nests and Eggs, 2nd ed., IT p. 370; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., X XI p. 20; Blanf., Avi. Brit. I., IV p. 5; Sharpe, Hand-List Birds, I p. 153; Oates, Cat. Eggs B.M., I p. 81; Stuart Baker, J.B.N.H.S., X p.63; id. ib., XIII p. 568 ; Inglis, ib., XIV p. 561; Stuart Baker, ib., XVII p. 970. Vernacular Names. Harial H.; Haitha or Bor Haitha, Assamese ; Daorep gadeba, Cachari; Inruigu, Naga. Description.—Adult male. Fore-head as far back as the eye, lores, chin, and throat greenish-yellow ; from fore-head to the nape and including the upper part of cheeks and ear-coverts ash-grey, changing on the neck to bright chrome, following which comes a band of grey, purer and brighter than the crown. Remainder of the upper-plumage including wing-coverts and inner- most secondaries olive-green, with a strong tinge of yellow; upper tail-coverts the same but sometimes tinged with grey. Tail above, grey with a broad basal band of olive-yellow, contrasting strongly with the rest of the tail though not with the upper tail-coverts; the outermost tail-feathers hardly show this band on the outer-web, and on the inner-web each pair of feathers has the yellow decreasing in extent towards the outermost. Below, the rather greenish-yellow of the throat runs into a purer king’s-yellow on the breast ; lower-breast, flanks, and abdomen grey ; the tibial feathers, the centre of the abdomen, and patches about the vent yellow, and the thighs and long flank- feathers covering them, with deep green-grey centres and pale whitish fringes ; under tail-coverts deep purple-chestnut, with broad whitish bands at the end of each feather; under aspect of tail grey with a broad black band at base nearly concealed by the tail-coverts. A band of lilac-purple on the innermost smaller wing-coverts ; greater wing-coverts and secondaries boldly edged with pale yellow, forming a bar on the closed wing, running from near the edge of the shoulder to the end of the longest secondary ; primaries dark brown, edged with yellow, the inner changing to the same colour as the back ; bastard-wing black and the greater- coverts next the yellow edging, dark brown. Bill, very pale bluish- or greenish-white, the cere more strongly tinged with this colour than the rest of the upper mandible ; lower mandible sometimes 8 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES darker at the base; legs and feet bright chrome-yellow, sometimes almost orange-yellow, but never red or pink ; iris with two rings of colour, the inner blue and the outer ranging from pink to bright crimson. Length about 13 to 14 in. (= 330 to 355 mm.) ; wing 7.25 to 7.80 in. (= 184 to 200 mm.), average of sixty-three birds 7.42 in. (= 188.4 mm.); tail about 4.5 in. (= 114.3) varying a good deal in length ; bill at front about 75 (=19.0 mm.) or a little over, and from gape a little over 1 in. (=25.4 mm.) ; tarsus about 1 in. (= 25.4 mm.). Young males of the year have the colour of the plumage rather less vivid, and the lilac-purple of the wing-coverts absent until after the first moult. They also average a good deal smaller, with a wing often as little as 7 in. (= 177.8 mm.) and seldom over 7.2 in. (= 182.8 mm.). Adult female. The female only differs from the male in degree of colour- ing, and a brightly-coloured female cannot be distinguished from a young or dully-coloured male. As a rule the lilac on the wing is less in extent and duller in colour; the definition between the grey of the abdomen and the yellow of the breast is not so clear; the under tail-coverts also have the chestnut paler and less in extent and sometimes mixed with dark grey, whilst the pale edges are correspondingly broader. Length from 12 to 13 in. ( = 304.8 to 330 mm.) with a wing of 7.1 to 7.32 in. (= 180.3 to 185.9 mm.), the average of forty birds bemg 7.23 in. (= 173.6 mm.). The bill, tarsus and tail are all proportionately slightly smaller than in the male. Distribution. The Bengal Green Pigeon is found throughout Bengal and Behar up to the Himalayas and into Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan; west it extends throughout the United Provinces and Oudh as far west as the Jumna, and Butler (Stray Feathers, IV) records it from Gujerat. It occurs in Central India and also in northern Orissa, but in the south of these presidencies it is replaced by chlorogaster, being found together with that form over much of its north-western range. To the extreme north-east it extends as far as Sadiya in Assam, birds from Dibrugarh, both north and south of the Brahmapootra, being typical phoenicopterus. In the Naga Hills, Khasia, and north Cachar Hills, we still get fairly typical phoenicopterus, with here and there a bird more like wiridifrons, but south of these ranges we find it overlaps with the eastern form; birds from south Cachar, Hylakandy and Sylhet being more or less intermediate though nearer viridifrons than phoenicopterus, whilst birds from Chittagong are typical specimens of the former subspecies. Nidification. Green Pigeons are early breeders and commence to build very early in March, laying in the end of that month, and continuing to do so up to June, whilst I have also known eggs laid occasionally as late as the end of August. Their courtship, with its attendant attitudes and “ showing off,” is much the same as that of the domestic and all other Pigeons, but as far as has been recorded hitherto, the attitudinizing never takes place on the ground. The male bird puffs out his throat and breast, lowers his wings, and ruffles out his feathers—and then prances solemnly up and down a branch, continually bowing his head and whistling softly as he makes his way backwards and forwards, to and from the lady he imagines he is captivating. Unlike most birds, the female does seem occasionally to admire the display of the male and, if not feeding, will sometimes respond to the extent of warbling out a few liquid notes and doing a minor “ skirt-dance ” on her own account. BENGAL GREEN PIGEON 9 The nest is a typical Pigeon’s nest of twigs placed criss-cross over one another, but very lightly intertwined, and always looking as if they would fall to pieces with the slightest excuse. They are, however, a good deal stronger than they look, and in spite of the exposed position in which they are so often placed, can stand a good deal of wind and shaking before they do actually come to grief. Generally the nests are placed in small trees and saplings at no great height from the ground, and, as a rule, on a horizontal branch, or a collection of such branches. Sometimes, however, large trees are selected for nesting purposes, and several observers have noticed its predilection for the mango tree. Hume found two in these trees in Etawah, and Captain Cock also writes that it, ‘Makes a rough stick nest, rather high up, usually in a Mango tree. The nest is of the usual type, but frequently placed on an excrescence, or where some parasitic plant shoots out and thickens the foliage, so as to render the bird more difficult to be seen.” Rarely the bird builds its nest in a clump of bamboos, and in such cases it may be very well concealed. These Pigeons are extraordinarily close sitters, and when their eggs are approaching hatching will sit on them until the intruder is within a yard or two of the nest. They seem to be companionable during the breeding- season, and more than one writer has mentioned finding two or three nests in close proximity. Inglis records in the Bombay Journal: “I have found three nests on the same tree, and have often found nests on trees close to one another.” The same writer also reports having found three eggs in one nest, and in another nest a quite fresh egg and one on the point of hatching. The eggs take, I believe, fourteen days to hatch. I have notes of having found a nest with one egg on the 3rd of April, and a second on the 4th, and when I returned to the same place fifteen days later the nest contained two young, apparently about a day old. The number of eggs laid is invariably two, and they are, of course, pure white. In shape they are broader ovals than the egg of the true Pigeon and the Ring- and Turtle-Doves, but they vary somewhat in this respect. Typically they are broad ovals, but little compressed at either end, and with two ends sub-equal. Abnormal eggs tend to be rather elongated ovals, and more rarely still, to a somewhat peg-top shape. The surface is very smooth and shiny, if I may use this expression, rather than with the hard gloss of the Woodpecker’s egg. The texture is very fine and close, with a surface silky to the touch, and the shell is stout and not brittle. The inner membrane is as pure a white as the outside shell. The average of nearly 100 eggs is 1.24 in. (= 31.8 mm.) by .96 ( = 24.4 mm.). My largest egg is 1.88 in. (= 35 mm.) by 1.03 ( = 26.1 mm.), but my smallest is not so small as that recorded by Hume, ie. 1.12 in. by .90 ( = 28.44 mm. by 22.86). The Bengal Green Pigeon is a bird of hill and level land, of forest, scrub, or plains, but it does not care for mountains of great height, and the barer plains must have an inducement, in the shape of scattered fruit trees of some sort, before he will take to them. Thus I have found him haunting the interior of forests where one may wander for days without meeting anything more civilized than a tiger or a barking 10 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES deer, and, on the other hand, I have had fine shooting at these birds as they scuttled headlong from one banyan tree (Ficus indica) to another in the heart of a big military cantonment. To some extent, however, their haunts are governed by the seasons of the year. During the breeding-season they are seldom found near the habitation of man, unless by man one refers to the wilder dwellers of the hills and jungles ; but once their young are fledged and on the wing, they will be found anywhere where food is plentiful. Even the seasons, however, do not completely cut them off from civilization, for they have been found breeding in the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta, and a few may always be met with about the better wooded. surroundings of Barakpore and Serampore. Although, however, it may be found in many hilly districts and, indeed, up to some height in the foot-hills of the Himalayas, it is, on the whole, more a Plains Pigeon than a mountain one. In North Cachar and the Naga Hills it is only to be met with below 2,000 ft. and is rare even at that height, whereas in the broken ground where the hills and plains meet, it is decidedly more plentiful. In the Khasia Hills it has been shot, as a straggler only, up to 4,000 ft., and it is found all along the Terai in the foot-hills, and in the Darjeeling districts ascends as high as in the Khasia Hills, though, here again, only in exceptional cases. In Nepal, Scully found it common in winter at Nawakot, at about 2,200 ft. elevation, but he did not find it at any time in the higher hills surrounding that valley. It must be noted also that Nawakot, though fairly elevated and well inside the Himalayas, is said by Scully to be very hot, damp, and well covered by forest, and to contain many banyan and pepul trees. In their favourite country, such as is composed of a certain amount of forest and scrub mixed with patches of cultivation and grass or bare land, their numbers do not seem to vary much all the year round, and they merely move locally according to where the supply of food is for the time being most plentiful. Thus in Chutia Nagpur, in the districts of Ranchi and Hazaribagh, they are always to be met with, provided one knows where to find their prevalent food growing. It was in the former of these two districts that I, personally, first made aquaintance with these most beautiful birds. A scattered Santhali village lay along the base of a rocky hill ; houses of thatch and bamboo being dotted here and there upon the stony bare soil, but almost BENGAL GREEN PIGEON 11 completely screened the one from the others by magnificent specimens of pepul (Ficus religiosa) and the banyan. Here and there were little patches of cultivation, and down below in the valley was a waving sea of young rice, the tender pale green glinting and swaying in the sunlight, when the breeze played on its surface as on water. After a long morning’s shooting we were lounging about in the shade of a clump of mango trees, just finishing a well-earned lunch, when I heard the most beautiful soft whistling coming from some pepul trees near by. Asking my older companions what the musical bird was, I was told, to my astonishment, that they were Green Pigeons. Jumping up, I at once went to the trees whence the sound proceeded, and for some minutes listened in silence : it was like that of a school- boy whistling under his breath a succession of soft mellow calls, with no tune, yet full of melody. The sounds rose and fell, now high, now low, yet ever soft and sweet, and so ventriloquistic that I found it impossible to locate the singer. At last a movement amongst the leaves showed me where the bird was sitting, but so perfectly did its green and yellow plumage harmonize with its surroundings, that once my eyes were withdrawn and the bird quiescent, it was with the greatest difficulty I could again discover it. When I did find it I fired and brought down, not only the bird I aimed at, but two others of whose presence in that spot I was quite unaware. Frightened by the report, some ten or twelve others flew from the tree, but a shot fired after them only hastened their movements. My admiration for the beauty of their plumage was no greater than my respect for their wonderful flight, and though I was then a fair shot at snipe, jungle and spur-fowl, etc., it was some time before I could realize the speed of this bird, and induce myself to shoot forward enough. Their flight is marvellously quick, and they go at a great pace from the start, in addition to which the way a flock of these birds alter their elevation as they fly is very disconcerting to a beginner. Over the greater portion of their range, Green Pigeons are hardly considered game-birds, and sportsmen seldom take the trouble to actually work them up and obtain bags of Pigeons alone. In Bengal Burma, and the Assam Valley, however, Green Pigeon rank very high as game-birds, and much trouble is taken in the proper organization and arrangements for shoots, at which these birds alone form the objects of the sport. Full worthy, too, are they of the trouble spent 12 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES upon them, for no greater variety of shots is obtainable ; no quicker shooting or straighter powder is required, than for the successful shooting and gathering of a big bag of these birds. The Bengal Green Pigeon, the largest of these lovely birds, is in Assam greatly outnumbered by some of its smaller cousins. Once, however, I shot over thirty couple of Green Pigeon, of which all but two were of the present species, and on another occasion Mr. C. Lawes and I shot twenty-one couple in less than an hour one evening, after returning from a long day’s buffalo-shooting in north Lahkimpur. On this occasion we were riding home on our elephants, when we saw two or three flights of Green Pigeon making for some trees close to the path we were following. As we were near home we decided to get off and shoot one or two for the pot; so down we got and took up our stands some hundred yards or so distant from, and on either side of, the trees which formed the attraction. Within a few minutes we were both hard at work, and in about half an hour, when cartridges gave out, we had each twenty-one birds to our credit. The shooting was very pretty, and nearly every shot seemed different from the rest. First a few birds would suddenly sweep up into sight, flying low over a belt of bushes in front of us, and going as if the next second would bring them into us; then, at the last moment, with a turn and a twist, they would rise higher into the air and flash by at the rate of sixty miles an hour. The next flock, perhaps, would come into sight far away, and give the impression that they were going to offer easy shots directly overhead, but before coming into range they would suddenly dip in their flight and scurry past us, a few feet from the ground. Then a single bird, or a pair of them, would give a glimpse of themselves as they slipped past between the bigger trees, instead of following the other birds into the more open ground ; others, yet again, would come high overhead, but straight on, and offer the most satisfactory rights and lefts possible. Some- times a bird would flash past from behind us, and skim out of sight before we realized that it had come; but, as a rule, all the birds came from the same direction. My bag of thirty odd couple of Bengal Green Pigeons was made in the same place as these twenty-one couple, but the birds were not quite so numerous, and my shooting lasted from about 4 p.m., when the birds began to come, until sudden dusk made it too dark to see, and the last few birds came and went in peace. BENGAL GREEN PIGEON 13 This curious habit of flighting between their feeding-grounds and their roosting or resting-places seems to be common to all Green Pigeons, especially where they are very numerous. Sunrise, as a rule, finds all birds on the wing coming steadily in one direction—towards the jungle or clumps of trees upon which they are intent upon feeding and for an hour or two they will come thick and fast ; then the birds, unless they have been too disturbed to feed, begin to work back to the ground where they rest during the heat of the day ; but the return journey is never as continuous or as steady as is the first journey in the morning. When the heat of the mid-day sun begins to lessen— any time between three and four—the birds once more flight to their feeding-grounds, not returning in the evening to roost until dusk begins to fall, and then, as far as I have been able to ascertain, always returning by some circuitous route and not by that which they have come by. The regularity with which, year after year, at exactly the same season, and for exactly the same period, Green Pigeons flight over certain country, is most remarkable. Equally curious is the punctuality displayed as regards their coming and going, and, provided their food- trees are not destroyed, one may count almost to a certainty on seeing each year the first flights in the same week in the same month, at the same time of day, and flying from and to the same direction. Of course, if the trees upon the fruit of which the birds feed are cut down, the following year a few flocks may turn up for a day or two to seek their food, and then the place is deserted for good and all. One of the prettiest pieces of shooting I have seen with these birds, was one which entailed the dropping of all birds within the narrow area of a high embankment, on which ran a road through swamps covered with dense cane-brakes. On either side of the embank- ment grew high forest-trees, by which the birds were screened from view until just as they topped them, so that a belated shot, if effective, sent the bird falling straight into the swamp behind, where the dense and prickly canes prevented all attempt to retrieve it. Equally, a hasty shot fired at a bird one had the luck to spot earlier than usual, lost it to the shooter in the swamp in front. Shooting one day on this embankment my host, the late Mr. F. Holder, brought down sixteen birds in succession, many of these being 14 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES rights and lefts, and all the birds killed fell, I believe, upon the embank- ment itself. My own shooting, alas, was rewarded by many splashes in the water behind and by one or two in front, but fall on land these contrary Pigeons would not, and at the end of the afternoon’s shoot I had gathered five birds to my companion’s thirty or forty. The plumage of all Pigeons, especially perhaps of Green Pigeons, is very dense and close in proportion to their size, and they take a lot of hitting to bring them down clean; more particularly so when the shooter is forced to fire at them coming towards him. The size of shot generally used is No. 7, but many use No. 6 and a few No. 5. This latter is, however, too large, and does not give as good an average as Nos. 6 or 7. Person- ally I always used the latter, and found this shot, with a full charge of one’s favourite powder, whatever that may be, and a choke or semi- choke 16-bore, gave the best all-round results. The Bengal Green Pigeon does not, as a rule, collect in very large flocks—some eight to a dozen birds form the majority of flocks— but others of twenty or even thirty may occasionally be met with. In their favourite feeding-haunts when the fig trees are in fruit, several flocks often collect on the same tree, and in such circumstances I should think I have seen sixty birds on one tree. These, however, though at the first alarm they all go off together, soon split up into their component parts. Sometimes single birds or pairs may be met with in the non-breeding season, but they are very sociable, and where this particular species is rare, I have often seen it associating with other Green Pigeons and keeping with them as they moved from one spot to another. In spite of their fondness for society they are, all the same, very quarrelsome birds—a characteristic, it is to be feared, “es of nearly all the “ gentle’ dove tribe. They are not so bad, however, in this respect as the true Pigeons, and can be kept in some numbers together in a cage, provided it is large enough. I had five or six pairs once in quite a small aviary, about 6 ft. by 8 and about 6 ft. high, and here they lived quite amicably, seldom fighting except over what they conceived to be the finest nesting-places. Pigeons are greedy drinkers, drinking as everyone knows by burying their bills in the water and taking long draughts without withdrawing them. ‘The hill-tribes firmly believe that Green Pigeons never come on to the ground to drink, but climb down creepers hanging over the water, or down reeds growing in it, until they are close enough BENGAL GREEN PIGEON 15 over to bend down and drink. It is not correct, however, to say that they never descend to the ground to drink, as I have myself seen them thus drinking, and have shot them as they rose. At the same time I have also often seen them drinking by climbing down overhanging canes and bushes until they were near enough to reach the water, and this latter manner of drinking is, perhaps, that most often resorted to. An interesting experiment with my cage-birds seemed to prove that the birds preferred drinking thus, and did not do so merely because there was no bare ground near to the water convenient to drink from. The birds referred to were supplied with wide shallow pans from which to drink, and when split bamboos, with one end resting in the water and the other slanting up to the perches, were placed in the aviary, it was found that more birds crept down the bamboos to drink than came right down on to the ground for this purpose. The belief of the hill-tribes in north-eastern India, which has been above referred to, is curiously supplemented by Cripp’s note in the seventh volume of Stray Feathers, where he writes that the natives of Furredpore in eastern Bengal “say that whenever this bird descends to the water’s edge for a drink it holds a twig in its claws; it prides itself on living altogether on trees, and in order that it may not be accused of perching on the ground when it descends to drink, brings down with it a twig to stand on.” They are greatly prized as cage-birds in India, being regularly exposed for sale in the Chiretta Bazaar in Calcutta; but though they whistle freely in captivity, and are not difficult to keep, they soon get rather dishevelled in appearance, especially when, as is generally the case, they are confined in bamboo cages so small that their tails constantly rub against the bars, and get very frayed and dirty. Captive birds are fed principally on plantains and suttoo, a mixture of meal and water, but a native bird-fancier told me that he had to vary this diet with dry grain and boiled rice, and also that he gave his birds practically any fruit which happened to be in season. Of fruit, however, the favourite seemed to be the jamans—a kind of wild plum—the fruit of the ber tree, and any kind of fig, such as pepul, banyan, etc. I never heard of anyone succeeding in getting them to breed in an aviary, or even to nest, though, as in my own case, they always grew very quarrelsome in the breeding-season, and would often spend 16 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES a long time trying to balance twigs in quite impossible positions. Nesting-sites, such as branches or boards put in convenient positions for them, never seemed to catch their fancy, and they appeared infinitely to prefer trying to make a foundation of twigs on a perch, which, invariably blew or tumbled off before it had advanced far enough to be of any use. They are great climbers, and if one is fortunate enough to get under a tree upon which they are feeding, without being noticed, he will see them clambering about from branch to branch, and from one twig to another, often leaning over to seize some special tit-bit, until they appear to be standing on their heads. They are not very shy birds, and many a time have I watched them for half an hour until some awkward movement of mine, or a sound of some kind, has startled them. Once frightened they all immediately sink into absolute silence, trusting to the way their green plumage and the green leaves blend to preserve them from molestation. Naturally, when much shot at, they soon become wild, and then the would-be observer must be quiet indeed if he can steal under a tree upon which they are feeding without driving them headlong out of it. Yet sometimes, even when a good deal fired at, they show great persistence in the way they cling to one place, or one set of trees, and it may take several evenings shooting before they finally make up their minds that the place is too hot for them. I remember one tree at which these birds continued to feed for some six or eight evenings and mornings, although they were more or less shot at every evening, and once or twice in the mornings as well. In this case the tree was an enormous single wild- plum standing isolated from all jungle in the middle of a tea- garden, and so lofty that the top of the tree was quite beyond shot. At first the birds fed all over this tree, and flighted into it quite low down, giving excellent shots as they approached; but the last day or two they altered their tactics, and arriving out of shot high overhead plunged into the tree at the very summit, and were off again like a flash when some unwise bird, flying lower than the rest, tempted us to have a shot. Swift as the flight of these birds undoubtedly is, it is not perhaps as quick as some of its smaller relations, such as Teron nepalensis and Osmotreron phayrei, but it is decidely faster than either of our Indian species of Sphenocercus. I have often noticed that, after firing BENGAL GREEN PIGEON 17 several consecutive shots at the Bengal Green Pigeon, I was inclined to shoot behind the smaller birds unless I remembered this fact. All Green Pigeons have the habit of clapping their wings over their backs when first taking to flight, and it may sometimes be heard when the birds dip in their flight and then suddenly rise again. Always, I believe, it is to be heard just as the birds commence to rise and not, as with domestic Pigeons, at other times of their flight ; also, in the Green Pigeon, the sound is not so startlingly loud as it is when made by the birds of the genera Columba and Turtur. The food of the Bengal Green Pigeon is, of course, entirely vegetarian, and principally frugivorous, and above all it seems to delight in the fruit of the various species of Ficus. The gapes of all Pigeons are large for the size of the bird, besides being soft and very elastic, otherwise it would be almost incredible the size of the fruit they can swallow. Plums and similar hard fruit they swallow whole, and often these are as large as the bird’s head, only two or three being containable in the crop at the same time. Larger and soft fruit, such as figs, they tear to pieces, pulling off great lumps which they swallow whole. They are very greedy, and their digestion is extremely rapid, so that they are able to indulge their appetite, and the amount these birds will eat is enormous. In confinement they consume almost any sort of grain, and I once shot a pair out of an Indian cornfield whose crops were full of the ripe, but still soft, maize. Whether these birds were feeding on the ground or not, it was impossible to say, but probably they were climbing about on the maize stems and tearing the grains from the growing cobs, though there were at the time a good many of these latter lying on the ground. My birds in captivity ate plantains greedily and would also eat the inside of oranges, invariably picking out the pips first before eating the fleshy part. Peaches and apricots they also ate, swallowing even the stone—kernel, shell and all, complete. In addition to fruit and grain they also ate a certain amount of green food such as lettuce, and once I saw a bird pulling some green shoots of rice which had just sprouted up in the corner of the aviary. They were also partial to bread and milk. (2) CROCOPUS PHOENICOPTERUS VIRIDIFRONS (Blyth). THE BURMESE GREEN PIGEON. (PLATE 1.) Treron viridifrons Blyth, J.A.S.B., XIV pt. 2 Pp: 849 (1845); id.! ib., XXIV p. 479; Godw.-Aust., ib., XXXIX p. iii. a gis Crocopus viridifrons Jerdon, B.L., TI p. 449; Hume, Str. Feath., II p. 481 ; id. ib., III p. 161; Blyth and Wald., B. Burma, p. 143; Godw. -Aust., JAS.B., LXIV p. 83; Oates, Str. Feath., V p. 163; Hume and Dav., ib., VI p. 410; Hume, ib., VIII p. 109; Bingh., ib., IX p. 194; Hume and Ing., ib., p. 257; Oates, ib., X p. 235; id., B. Burma, II p. 307; Hume, Str. Feath., XI p. 290; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 28; Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 153; Stuart Baker, J.B.N.H.S., X p. 363. Crocopus phoenicopterus (part), Blanf., Avi. Brit. I., IV p. 5; Harington, B. Burma, p. 117; Oates (part), Cat. B.M., I p. 81; Primrose, J.B.N.H.S., XIII p. 78; Macdonald, ib., XVII p. 495; Mears and Oates, ib., XVIII p. 86; Harington, ib., XIX p. 308 ; id. ib., p. 365. Vernacular Names. Ngu Bom-ma-di, Burmese; Daorep Gadeba, Cachari; Inruigu, Naga. Description.—Adult male. Differs from C. ph. sphoenicopterus in having the yellow of the fore-head running back as far as the back of the crown, and generally a good deal brighter than in that bird; the greater part of the cheeks and also the major portion of the ear-coverts are of the same yellowish-green. The upper tail-coverts, on the other hand, are more grey than they are in phoenicopterus, and contrast strongly with the yellow band on the tail. Colours of soft parts are the same as in the western form, and the dimensions are the same. Adult female. Differs from the male in the same way, and to the same extent as the female of C. ph. phoenicopterus differs from its male. Distribution. The range of this subspecies extends over northern Burma and the hill-ranges of north-east Burma, south-east into Cochin China, and as far south as Moulmein. To the west it extends through Arrakan, Cox’s Bazaar into Chittagong and the Chittagong hill-tracts. I have seen no specimens from Comilla, but Sylhet birds and those from the plains of Cachar are intermediate between phoenicopterus and viridifrons, most birds being nearer the latter, and birds occasionally being obtained which are typical viridifrons. Everywhere north of the Surrma Valley hill-ranges and west of the big rivers running into the Bay of Bengal, only phoenicopterus is met with. In his Birds of Burma, Harington says that this Pigeon is common from north to south everywhere except on Mount Victoria, and that it is ! a1LV1d (8ZIS “JBN §) ‘SNOUMAIGIYNIA “Hd SQAdODOMI—NOADId NSASAYD SASAWYHNAG AHL BURMESE GREEN PIGEON 19 the only Pigeon he has met with in the dry zone, where, however, it is certainly plentiful. Nidification. So far there is nothing on record about the breeding of this bird, except the notes in Nests and Eggs by Oates and Bingham. The former writes: “One egg was brought me by my collector with the female bird. It was found in April, and there were two eggs. The nest was reported to have been placed in a bamboo at a good height up one of the branches.” Bingham records: “I have only come across this fine Pigeon in the Thaungyeen Valley. It is not uncommon on the banks of the Meplay, where I found a nest as detailed below. “ At the place where the Hteechara-choung flows into the Meplay stands a grand ficus tree, which in March is loaded with fruit, and is the resort of Hornbills, Pigeons, Barbets, and innumerable other birds. On the 16th of the above month I found, in a small ziziphus tree (Ziziphus jujuba) growing about twenty yards from this ficus, a nest of this Pigeon containing two pure white eggs slightly set. The nest was the usual careless few twigs laid across and across, and was not more than twelve feet from the ground. I shot the female as she flew off. The eggs measured 1.23 in. by 0.90 and 1.22 by 0.81.” Like most Green Pigeons they are very close sitters, and are hard to drive away from their nests even before the eggs begin to be incubated, and when the eggs are very hard set, or the young recently hatched, they will often sit until almost touched by the intruder. Harington remarks on this in epistola: “‘I have only taken two nests, both at Taunygyi during April. The first was placed about ten feet up a small bushy tree growing on the side of a steep hill, so that one could look into the nest from a very few yards off. The old bird sat very tight, and as she was required for identification I had a shot at her head, knocking it clean off, so that it hit my orderly who was standing below: and for the moment he thought that I had missed the bird and shot him instead. The nest contained one egg, the pair to which was taken from the bird when the orderly was preparing the latter for his dinner.” I have taken a fair number of eggs of this subspecies, and except that I have found several in bamboo-clumps, and one or two in cane-brakes, there is nothing to record about them that would not apply to nests of ph. phoenicopterus. The nests in the cane-brakes were about five or six feet from the ground, or rather from the surface of the water over which they hung. The nests in the bamboo-clumps were about the same height up, and well hidden amongst the numerous twigs and branches which then covered the clumps. Eggs sent me by my native collector from Tennasserim were said to have been taken from small trees or bamboo clumps. ‘The latter were all in fairly thick jungle, and it is possible that viridifrons, over part of its range, is rather more consistently a forest-bird than phoenicopterus which breeds alike in the open, in forest, or in mango topes, and other clumps of trees. The eggs cannot be discriminated from those of C. ph. phoenicopterus, being of the usual broad oval shape, or broad elliptical, pure, soft white, with smooth surface and close texture. The eggs in my collection average 1.24 by .98 in. (= 31.8 by 24.9 mm). In habits, flight, voice, etc., this bird does not in any way differ from the other subspecies. Oates says (Stray Feath., Vol. III): “ This species is common throughout the plains . . . I have never received co 2 20 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES it from the Pegu Hills, nor from those of Arracan. It is essentially a bird of the plains, as Osmotreron phayrei is of the hills.” Davison, in the fifth volume of the same work, records that: ‘It has all the habits of the other Green Pigeons, and like them, is very noisy and quarrelsome when feeding . . . the note is similar to that of T’reron nepalensis ; it is broader and more rolling.” Harington, describing its occurrence in the dry zone in Upper Burma, writes to me: “Its well-known whistling call can generally be heard round almost every village and Phonygi Kyoung during the early morning, so that one can always be sure of bagging one or two of these Green Pigeons when needed for the pot. It is, again, extremely plentiful in the open valleys of the Shan States, at an elevation of some 2,000 ft., being very partial to the ficus and pepul trees which are plentiful near villages and bazaars in these parts. “T have never noticed them in thick or dense jungle, where their place seems to be taken by O. phayrei and bisincta, they have, however, been recorded from all parts of Burma. “When the berries of the ficus and pepul are ripe large numbers congregate, and very fair shooting can be got by finding out their line of flight, as when disturbed at one set of feeding places, they generally take the same route to some other favourite trees.” (3) CROCOPUS PHOENICOPTERUS CHLOROGASTER (Blyth). THE SOUTHERN GREEN PIGEON. Vinago chlorogaster Blyth, J.A.S.B., XII, lst part, p. 167 (1843). Treron jerdont Strik., Ann. Mag. N.H., XIII p. 38. Treron chlorigaster Blyth, J.A.S.B., XIV p. 850; id., Cat. B.M.A.S.B., p. 229. Crocopus chlorogaster Bp., Con. Av., IL p. 12; Adam, Str. Feath., I p. 390; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 30; Blanf., Avi. Brit. I., IV p. 6; Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 853; Oates, Cat. Eggs B.M., I p. 81; Dewar, J.B.N.H.S., XVI p. 494; Martin Young, ib., p. 514; Moss King, ib., XXI p. 98; Pitman, ib., XXII. p. 194; Aitken, Com. B. Burma, p. 153. Crocopus chlorigaster Jerdon, B.I., IIL p. 448; Blanf., J.A.S.B., XX XVII pt. m p. 187; Ball, Str. Feath., II p. 423; Butler, ib., IV p. 2; Hume, ib.; Fairbank, ib., p. 261; Hume, Nests and Eggs, III p. 492; Fairbank, Str. Feath., V p. 408; Ball, ib., VIL p. 224; Murray, ib., p.113; Hume, Cat. no. 773; id., Str. Feath., VIII., p. 109; Vidal, ib., IX p. 73; Legge, B. Cey., p. 722; Reid, Str. Feath., X p. 58; Davidson, ib., p. 314; Davison, ib., p. 406, Taylor, ib., p. 463; Barnes, B. Bom., 285; id., J.B.N.H.S., V p. 328; Oates, in Nests and Eggs, 2nd ed., II p. 372; Davidson, J.B.N.H.S., XII p. 61. Vernacular Names. JHarial, Hin.; Pacha Gawa,Tel.; Pacha pora,Tam. Description.—Adult male. Differs from Crocopus ph. phoenicopterus in having the under-parts practically unicoloured, from chin to vent, yellow; the fore-head shows no green at all, or has this confined merely to the edge of the bill; the lores and the whole of the side of the head are grey unmixed with green and the grey often encroaches on to the sides of the chin and throat; there is no basal band of green on the upper part of the tail, though some birds may have a tinge of this colour upon the outer webs at the base of the central rectrices. The female differs from the male in the same way as does that of phoenicopterus and viridifrons. The size and colour of the soft parts are the same as in the two other subspecies, Distribution. The Southern Green Pigeon has the widest distribution of the three subspecies, for it is found throughout the whole of southern India and Ceylon, whilst north it extends through Central India and Madras and throughout Orissa, but it is replaced by C. ph. phoenicopterus in south Bengal, though here a few birds are intermediate between the two. Further west in Behar, the Southern Green Pigeon is still common in the south, but less so in central Behar, and is entirely replaced by the Bengal form in the north. Inglis has specimens from Behar which cannot be referred decidedly to either race, and Ball, writing from Lucknow, says: “ Most of my specimens 22 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES belong to the latter species (chlorogaster) if it is really a species distinct from phoenicopterus, which I am almost tempted to doubt.” Further west and north it extends through Rajputana and the Punjab, except in the extreme west, and through the United Provinces, well into the foot-hills of the Himalayas. Like the other subspecies this also is more of a plains than a mountain bird, but it has been recorded from the Palnis, Shevaroys, and Neilgherries. Davidson says that it is not common in Kanara, but that it is found there, and that he has taken nests and eggs. Oates’s remarks made in Nests and Eggs concerning the three subspecies of Crocopus may well be quoted here, though I cannot personally say that my experience, which as regards chlorogaster is confined to museum skins, endorses all that he says: “The Bengal Green Pigeon, though found as a straggler in the eastern portions of the Punjab and Rajputana, and somewhat more commonly almost throughout the Central and North-Western Provinces and Oudh, is really at home only in Bengal, and the tongue of Bengal-like country that runs up under the Himalayas, westward to the Jumna; everywhere else, the so-called southern species C. chlorigaster is much more abundant. “Following, I suppose, Dr. Jerdon, Mr. Wallace in his article on the ‘Pigeons of the Malay Archipelago,’ gives C. phoenicopterus from northern India and China, and C. chlorigaster from Ceylon and the Indian Peninsular. As a matter of fact, C. chlorigaster is fully as common in upper India and in most places far more common than C. phoenicopterus. In the North-West Provinces both species associate in the same flock, C. chlorigaster being, as far as my experience goes, most numerous. Out of sixty odd shot in three days in the Etawah District in March, 1886, only nine belonged to the so-called Northern Indian type, and seven shot near Hansi (Punjab) were all C. chlorigaster. Eastwards of Bengal the present species shades into the nearly allied C. viridifrons, and throughout Upper India innumerable forms, more or less intermediate between it and C. chlorigaster, are to be met with. I have seen specimens of C. phoenicopterus from the Malabar coast; and although I have not yet thoroughly examined the question, I suspect that, different as are typical examples of the two races, they as little deserve specific separation as Aegithina typhia and A. zeylonica.” Nidification. As regards the nidification there is practically nothing to add to the description already given of that of C. ph. phoenicopterus. As a rule the birds build a very rough structure of small twigs and sticks with no lining of any kind, and place it on a branch of some small sapling at no great height from the ground, and often in a conspicuous position, though the material of which it is made does not quickly attract attention. Sometimes, however, these Pigeons would appear to line their nests, for Mr. Blewitt thus describes the nests he took at Hansie: “The nests were placed on toon, neem, shishum, and keeker trees, mostly growing on the canal bank, at heights of from fourteen to eighteen feet from the ground. “They are composed of shishum (Zizyphus) and keeker twigs, in some cases slenderly in others densely put together. One or two were absolutely without lining, but they were mostly very scantily lined with leaves, feathers or fine straw. They varied from five to seven inches in diameter, and from 14 to 3 inches in depth. They contained two eggs in every case, and some taken at the end of May were quite fresh.” Their principal breeding-season is from the end of March to the middle of May, though a good many birds breed as late as the middle of June. Hume ee ee SOUTHERN GREEN PIGEON 23 says that they have at least two broods yearly, and perhaps more. Their eggs cannot be distinguished from those of O. ph. phoenicopterus and C. ph. viridifrons. In habits there is nothing to distinguish the Southern Green Pigeon from the Bengal and Burmese birds. It is curious and should be noted that this subspecies also, like the others, is credited with never coming to the ground to drink. Reid writes in Stray Feathers, Vol. X, that “natives believe this bird never descends to the ground, and that when it desires to drink it settles on a reed which bends over with its weight and thus enables it to drink.” Mr. C. S. R. Pitman, lec., writes that in the Central Provinces he has noticed Green Pigeon (Crocopus chlorogaster) drinking both at dawn, and in the evening about 4.30 or 5 p.m. Jerdon also says that he has seen this bird in Chanda, when it was breeding, “come in large parties, generally about 9 a.m., to certain spots on river banks to drink, and after taking a draught of water, occasionally walk a few steps on the damp sand, appearing to pick up small pebbles, pieces of gravel or sand.” E. H. A. has a charming account of this bird in his Common Birds of Bombay which cannot be passed over. He writes: “The Fruit Pigeons are green birds, which try to be parrots, but nature has stamped them doves; they live entirely on fruit, which they swallow whole, not having parrot beaks to carve it with. A very wide gape and a most capacious and elastic throat make amends to some extent for this defect ; but still the Fruit Pigeon is obliged to do without mangoes and guavas ... It finds compensation in the many varieties of wild figs which every forest in India produces in such liberal profusion. When a fig-tree fruits, it fruits all over, and all at once, offering a feast to the whole country, such as a Rajah gives when an heir is born to the throne ; and as mendicant Brahmins gather from distant provinces to the Rajah’s feasts, so the Fruit Pigeons from afar flock together to this tree while it lasts ; first about eight in the morning, and again about four in the afternoon. Then is the time to shoot them, for they are excellent eating, especially if their tough skins have been taken off before cooking. It is difficult at first to see them for they are verdant like the foliage among which they sit strangely silent and motion- less, but after much peering among the leafy boughs you may catch sight of a tail slowly oscillating like a pendulum. There is a solitary 24 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES green bird sitting like a wooden figure—you fire and two fall, and a dozen fly off. If you are as other men, you will probably utter loud and naughty words, for if you had known there were so many birds you might easily have had a second shot at them as they flew. But if you are wise, you will rule your spirit and be still, for there may be a score of Pigeons in the tree yet, and others will come in small parties from time to time, so that, with patience, you may make a very respectable bag before the feeding-hour is over. Then remorse will have its turn, perhaps, as you gather up the fallen, and see what loveliness you have destroyed for the sake of your stomach.” It is extremely common in Mysore, where however it appears to be locally migratory, not visiting the hills until after the rains, and presumably breeding lower down and in the plains Taylor says that they were so plentiful that one evening he shot forty-six, and on one occasion got eleven and seven respectively to his first and second barrels, showing that they must have been in very large and densely flying flocks. Genus OSMOTRERON. In the British Museum Catalogue of Birds, Vol. XXI, Count Salvadori recognizes seventeen species in this genus, but a great number of his accepted species only differ very slightly from one another according to their geographical range, and their differences are certainly not of more than subspecific value. In the same way Blanford, prior to an acceptance of subspecies and of the consequent trinomial system, admitted seven species of Osmotreron as inhabiting the area dealt with in this book. The acceptance, however, of subspecies reduces the number of species within the limits of India, Burma, and Ceylon to four—i.e. pompadora, fulvicollis, bisincta, and vernans, whilst the three species phayret, affinis, and chloroptera are reduced to the rank of subspecies of pompadora, and a new subspecies is created for the northern form of bisincta under the name of domwvillit. The difference between this genus and the last (Crocopus) is very slight, and consists mainly in the fact that the latter genus has the first three primaries acuminate whilst Osmotreron has them normally shaped. The birds of this genus are also somewhat smaller in size, and the sexes are dissimilar: the males in some cases having maroon on the backs, and in others having highly-coloured breasts, whilst the females have neither. Key to the Species. A. Middle tail-feathers green : a. Head and neck grey and green ... ee st O. pompadora ¢. 6. Head and neck cinnamon-red __... sd wee O. fulvicollis 3. ce. Tibial plumes buff or dull yellowish __... de3 O. pompadora 9°. d. Tibial plumes bright yellow $23 ie oes O. fulvicollis 9. B. Middle tail-feathers slaty-grey : a. Outer tail-feathers with broad grey tips over .5in. deep O. bisincta. 6. With grey tip less than .5 in. deep ae aoe ... O. vernans. OSMOTRERON POMPADORA. Key to the Subspecies. A. Lower tail-coverts cinnamon or whitish : a. Fore-head yellow... ea si me .. O. p. pompadora. b, Fore-head and crown grey : a’ Grey of head pure, and well defined from sur- rounding parts... So bbc 6h O. ». phayret. b’ Grey of head dull and ill defined... Eb: O. p. affinis. B. Lower tail-coverts largely dark green ... a .. 0. p. chloroptera. In order to keep this book as uniform as possible with the Avifauna of British India, 1 deal with these subspecies in the same sequence as they are considered in that work. As regards the specific name which all four subspecies must bear, we find that the earliest name applied to any one of these races of Green Pigeons is that of “pompadora,”’ given by Gmelin in 1788 to a Pigeon from Ceylon, called by Brown, in his Jilustrations of Birds (1766), the ‘‘ Pompadour Pigeon.” In 1840 Jerdon named the female of the race found in the Southern Presidency, Vinago affinis ; but five years later, in 1845, when describing the male of the same race found in Southern India (Illus. Orn. Pac. C., XXI) he re-names it mala- barica. As there is no law making the name given subsequently to a male take the place of that given to a female at a previous date, affinis certainly has priority over malabarica, and must stand for the subspecies. The name chloroptera was given by Blyth in 1845 to the race from the Nicobars and finally, in 1862, the same ornithologist named our northern race phayrev. ——- (4) OSMOTRERON POMPADORA PHAYREI (Blyth). THE ASHY-HEADED GREEN PIGEON. (FRONTISPIECE.) Treron malabarica (part) Blyth, J.A.S.B., XIV p. 852 (1845) ; id., Cat. R.A.S.B., p. 229. Osmotreron phayret Blyth, J.A.S.B., XXTI p. 344 (1862); Jerdon, B.I., IIT p.451; Blyth and Wald., B. Burma, p. 144; Godw.-Aus., J.A.S.B., XXXIX pt.2 p.ili; id. ib, XLV pt. 2 p. 83; Hume, Str. Feath., II p. 162; Inglis, ib., V p. 39; Hume and Dav., ib., VI p. 412 ; Hume, Cat. no. 776 ; id., Str. Feath., VIII p. 109; Bingham, Str. Feath., IX p. 194; Oates, B. Burma, II p. 310; id., Hume’s Nests and Eggs, 2nd ed., IT., p. 376 ; Hume, Str. Feath., X p. 235; id. ib., XI p. 291; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 43; Blanf., Avi. Brit. I, IV p. 8; Sharp, Hand-List, I p. 54 ; Oates, Cat. Eggs B.M., I p. 52; Harington, B. Burma, p. 63; Stuart Baker, J.B.N.H.S., X p. 364; Inglis, ib., XI p. 457; Stuart Baker, ib., XVII p. 970; Mears, ib., XVIII p. 86; Harington, ib., XIX p. 365. Vernacular Names. Daorep, Cachari; Inruigum, Naga.; Vohpolip, Kuki; Chota Haitha, Assamese ; Chota Harial, Sylheti; Ngu, Burmese ; Chota Harial, Bengali. Description.—Adult male. Whole crown of head and nape ashy-grey, the nape most pale, as a rule, and most pure in colour, the fore-head mixed with green and duller. Neck behind and extreme upper-back green, fairly well defined from the grey of the head and also from the chestnut-maroon of the back, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts ; lower-back, rump, and upper tail-coverts green, rather more yellowish than the neck. Outer tail-feathers black, each succeeding pair becoming more greenish, until the central ones are entirely of this colour and practically unicolorous with their coverts ; a broad band of grey at the tips of all but the central feathers. Lores, sides of head and narrow supercilium green, well defined from the grey of the crown and nape; throat and fore-neck the same, but much more yellow ; upper-breast a creamy-orange, occasionally tinged with vinous or pink ; lower-breast, abdomen, and flanks greenish, deepening in colour on the lower-flanks and thigh-coverts which are splashed with yellow; feathers of the vent and under tail-coverts cinnamon, the former sometimes a little the paler of the two and with yellowish borders. Median and greater wing- coverts black, fading to grey on the inside of the webs, the former with broad and the latter with narrow borders of yellow on the outer-webs ; quills black inclining to grey on the inside of the inner webs, the primaries with narrow yellowish white margins and the secondaries with yellow borders, becoming very broad on the innermost which are also often much suffused with the same tint of maroon as that of the scapulars. Axillaries and under wing- coverts grey, with sometimes a tinge of green. 28 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES The amount of orange on the breast is very variable and there are two specimens in the British Museum collection, both from southern Burma, which have none at all, although they appear, otherwise, to be fully adult birds. The grey of the head is also somewhat variable, in some specimens being less sharply defined from the surrounding parts and also more dull and less pure in tint, as well as more restricted in area. “Length 10.75 to 11.75; expanse 18.46 to 19.5; tail from vent 3.37 to 4.0; wing 6.0 to 6.25; tarsus 0.82 to 0.95; bill from gape 0.82 to 1.0; weight 4.5 to 6 ozs.” (Hume). The huge series of this bird which I have measured shows that this little Green Pigeon varies very considerably in size, wing-measurements ranging from 5.65 in. ( = 143.5 mm.) to no less than 6.5 ( = 164.7 mm.), the wing- measurement of a specimen from Sylhet. I can trace no geographical connexion with this variation in size: the largest and smallest birds being found in the same areas. The average of over 300 wing-measurements is 6.10 in. (= 154.9 mm.); the measurements of bill and tarsus vary to the same extent in proportion. Two exceptionally large males shot in the Dibrugarh District of Assam each weighed fully 7 oz., pulling the scale well down at that weight. The great majority of birds do not, however, weigh much over 5 oz. Colours of soft parts. Bill bluish-white, the base somewhat darker and the lower mandible still paler; legs lake-red, the posterior portion always paler, in old birds the edges of the scales showing white; iris pink with an inner circle of pale blue, orbital-skin bluish or pale slate-grey. In young birds the two rings of colour in the iris are pale and indefinite and the orbital- skin is almost white; nestlings have the iris a pale brown. “ Irides usually with an inner ring of bright blue, and an outer ring of salmon or buffy pink, sometimes they are a rosy pink, at others reddish yellow.” (Davison.) Female has the chestnut-maroon of the upper-parts replaced by green ; there is no sign of any orange on the breast, which is concolorous with the rest of the plumage, and the under tail-coverts are white or buffy-white with greenish bases and centres. I cannot find that there is any difference between the sexes in size; the biggest birds have been mostly males, but so have the smallest, the range in length of wing for 180 females being between 5.82 in. ( = 144.8 mm.) and 6.30 (= 159.10 mm.), and the average of the same number 6.09 in. ( = 154.68 mm.). The young male is like the female, but assumes a certain amount of maroon on the upper-parts, more especially on the lesser wing-coverts, in the autumn moult of the first year. Birds in their first plumage have the grey of the head duller than in the adult, and the yellow margins to the wing-feathers narrower and paler in colour. The young birds are also very much smaller than adults, and do not attain their full size until they are a year old, that is to say, until the spring of the year succeeding that in which they are hatched. Distribution. The Ashy-headed Green Pigeon is found in Lower Bengal from about as far south as the latitude of Calcutta, though rare there, becoming more common in the eastern Bengal districts of Maldah, Barisal, Dacca and Mymensingh, and thence north and east extremely plentiful throughout the Assam Valley, Cachar, Sylhet, Chittagong, Comillah, and Noakhali. In the Khasia Hills, Manipur, Looshai Hills, and the hill-ranges of ASHY-HEADED GREEN PIGEON 29 northern Burma it is equally numerous, and thence it ranges east into Cochin China and south as far as Tenasserim, but not into the Malay States. Nidification. The breeding-season of the Ashy-headed Green Pigeon commences in the last few days of March or early April and extends through April, May, and June into July and August, but April and early May is the time when most birds lay. In the hills south of the Brahmapootra few birds will be found breeding after May, but in the foot-hills of the Himalayas a good many continue to nest until well into July, whilst in Tavoy, on the other hand, Darling took its eggs as early as the 19th of March. The nest is the usual platform of carelessly interlaced twigs, with no lining and but very little depression in the centre, though the projection of the twigs prevents the eggs rolling about. Roughly speaking, the nest is anything from 5 to 8 in. across, but they are often far from circular in shape, being much longer one way than the other. In depth they vary between 1 and 3 in., though odd pieces hang about and add to this. They build their nests either in small saplings or in bamboo-clumps as a rule, but now and then one may be taken from quite high up in a biggish tree. Both birds take part in the building, but I think the female does most of the actual work of construction, whilst the male brings the material to her. A pair I watched building their nest in a clump of bamboos quite close to a rest-house I was staying in, were accustomed to work only for about two hours in the morning and again for about the same time in the evening. In spite, however, of the few hours they devoted to work, the nest was completed in three days, and the first egg laid on the fourth day. The nests are not generally well concealed, and as they are more often placed at heights under, than over 8 ft., they are easy to find and get at. Occasionally they are placed in cane- brakes in swampy valleys and then, of course, are far more difficult of access though still easy enough to find, the bird sitting so close that one cannot help but notice her nest as she quits it. The site of it, too, is often given away by the whistling and antics of the cock-bird, which is much given to perambulating up and down a branch close to the nest whilst he croons and whistles to his little mate. This crooning, a sort of low “coo, coo,” very like a dove’s but lower and deeper, I have never heard uttered except by the mate to his sitting wife. It is quite a sweet sound, though not so beautiful as the whistling-note . The eggs are with this, as with nearly all others of the family, two in number, pure white, rather glossy and with a very fine, close texture. In shape they are either broad ellipses or are broad, blunt ovals, but now and then eggs are found with both ends curiously pointed. The average of 180 eggs is 1.08 in. by .83 ( = 27.4 mm. by 21.0), and the greatest length and breadth 1.14 in. (= 28.8 mm.) and .86 ( = 21.8 mm.), and the least each way 1.02 in. (= 25.9 mm.) and .80 ( =20.3 mm.) respectively. They cannot be distinguished from the eggs of T'reron nepalensis or other Pigeons of the genus Osmotreron, though they average a trifle smaller than those of O. bisincta domvillii. I have never yet ascertained exactly how long incubation lasts, but it will probably be found to be from twelve to fourteen days, according to circumstances. This Pigeon is not a bird of high elevations and though I have shot it as high as 4,000 ft. both in the Khasia and north Cachar Hills, it is 30 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES found in the greatest numbers in the foot-hills up to 1,500 or 2,000 ft., and thence some way into the more level country adjoining them. In the plains of Dibrugarh, where we have a flora and fauna more like that found elsewhere at an elevation of about 1,000 ft. and upwards, this Pigeon swarms and certainly forms at least two-thirds of the Green Pigeons which annually fall to the guns of the local sportsmen. Twice I have seen bags of over four hundred Pigeons made in one day, and in each case considerably over two-thirds of the birds obtained were of this species. Bingham also records that he “ found this the commonest Green Pigeon on Thaungyeen and the higher parts of the Houndraw River.” They are quite first-class little game-birds in every way. Their flight, like that of all Green Pigeons, is wonderfully swift, and they have a most disconcerting habit of coming straight at you over the tree-tops and then swooping down within a few feet of the ground as they approach, only to rise again with equal rapidity just as one is about to fire, and then with a few rapid twists and turns disappear behind you, leaving you with two empty cartridges and an equally empty bag. As with their larger cousins, the Bengal Green Pigeon and its subspecies, the easiest way to shoot them is to get close to some tree or trees upon which they are feeding, and take them as they come towards you. By this means one meets them as they are slowing down somewhat, and their flight is generally fairly direct; but even under these circumstances, a very few shots put them on the qui vive, and every flock that comes, after one or two birds have been dropped, flies higher and faster than its predecessor, and often after whirling round once or twice in wide circles, departs the way it has come without offering a possible shot. The most sporting way of shooting them is undoubtedly that practised by the tea-planters of the Panitola and many other tea- districts in Assam. The breeding-season over, the birds collect in very large flocks, and towards the end of July and August frequent certain feeding-grounds in the forests round the tea-gardens. Here and there these forests are traversed by roads, and elsewhere are small patches of cultivation or open spaces beside some stream or forest- pool, and it is in such places the guns are placed when a shoot has been decided upon. ASHY-HEADED GREEN PIGEON 31 Very early in the morning, whilst the sun is still below the horizon and before the magic dawn of the East leaps into day, the birds com- mence to arrive at their feeding-ground in ones or twos and small parties, and the first shots at the still unfrightened birds are com- paratively easy, so that the sportsman, after a few successful shots, begins to feel on good terms with himself. As the sun begins to peep into sight and climbs slowly up to the tree-tops, the birds come faster and faster and in bigger flocks ; but the constant firing that is going on tells them of their enemies’ presence, and they put on the pace and dodge, swoop, and turn in a manner that often completely baffles the best shot, so that though cartridges are expended faster than ever, fewer birds fall in proportion, and it is an exceptional shot who can gather on an average one bird for every alternate cartridge. At such times as this I have seen a flock of birds run the gauntlet of seven guns—my own, alas! amongst them—and finally vanish with their number complete and nothing more than a few feathers fluttering slowly to the ground to show that one shot amongst the seven has been more nearly successful than the rest. Up to about 9.30 a.m. the fun is fast and furious, but then by degrees it slackens off until by noon the birds have all retired to the deeper forests, where they take their siestas during the heat of the day, a faint melodious whistle in the distance telling the whereabouts of some belated flock which retires after the others have all gone. No more shooting can now be expected until about three or four o’clock in the afternoon, so the sportsmen may lunch in comfort, and, if they choose, follow the example of the birds and indulge in forty winks. But an August afternoon in the plains of India is too hot even for sleep out of doors, however thick the shade, so a temporary adjournment is generally made to the nearest planters’ bungalow until it is time once more to recommence work at the birds. As the shadows begin to lengthen the Pigeons again arrive on the feeding-grounds in the forests in numbers that show little diminu- tion in spite of the toll taken from the flocks in the morning. For a couple of hours the birds continue to flight backwards and forwards between the trees on which they are feeding, and until dusk begins to gather there is no cessation to the shooting. As soon, however, as the sun dips behind the distant trees, the flocks commence to wend 32 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES their way to their roosting-place, and almost before it is too dark to see to shoot, the last of them has left. The marvellous variety of shots obtained in a shoot of this de- scription is one of its principal charms. If, as is often the case, one is standing in a small open patch in fairly extensive forest, the birds flight backwards and forwards from every direction, and offer every description of shot, and in all four quarters. First a flock may come sailing high overhead from the front, whilst next a single bird may rush past only a few feet from the ground, dodging bushes and trees at a headlong pace. A snap shot between the forest-trees may bring this to bag, and just give the sportsman time to swing round and empty his second barrel at a flock coming up from behind him. Not only is straight shooting required in such cases, but the quickest of eyes and hands, and the man who is prone to dwell over his second barrel will lose nearly, if not quite, a third of his possible shots. Beating in shoots of this description is not necessary, though often before shooting has become general, men are sent out to the favourite feeding-trees to start the birds. Once the firing has begun in earnest, the Pigeons keep almost constantly on the wing, shifting from one set of trees to another with but few short pauses to feed, whilst on-coming flocks add to their number and replace those frightened away altogether. Another charm in these shoots is the wonderful variety in the game brought to hand, and in the two big bags of over four hundred birds to which I have referred there were no less than twelve species, including the following: Crocopus phoenicopterus, Osmotreron phayrei, O. bisincta, Sphenocercus sphenura, S. apicauda, Treron nepalensis, Carpophaga aenea, Ducula insignis, Chalcophaps indica, with a few unlucky Doves, generally Turtur meena. A more beautiful bag it would be difficult to imagine and, lovely as are the Sand-Grouse, I think the Green Pigeon are even more so. The marvellous blending of the greens and yellows and soft greys, with here and there the purple sheen of the backs of some of the males and an occasional metallic glint of a Bronze-wing Dove, is a picture difficult to do justice to, either with pen or brush. Even more difficult shooting than that above described, is sometimes obtained by finding out the birds’ line of flight to and from their feeding-grounds and roosting-places, and by stationing ASHY-HEADED GREEN PIGEON 33 oneself at some point of their flighting where the natural advantages are all in favour of the birds. One such place was the crest of a small hill between the Rangagora and Digaltarang Tea-gardens in the Dibrugarh district, where the birds on good days passed in a constant stream every morning and evening for some two hours. Here, if one stood in the open on the top of the rise, the birds came so high and wide that but few shots were obtained; on the other hand, if one stood out of sight of the approaching Pigeon, on the far side of the hill just below the crest, the birds came sweeping up the hill so close to the ground that they were not visible until they cleared the top, not thirty yards in front, and were also protected to a great extent by the scrub- jungle which was scattered about. Behind us, and within a few yards, was heavy tree-forest, and directly the Pigeon came into sight, and also caught sight of us, they scurried through the bushes into this forest like lightening, dodging from one side to another like Jack Snipe, though at four times the pace. I had the pleasure of shooting here once with two other guns when there was a high wind behind the birds, and harder shooting I have never had. We did pick up some sixty birds in the two hours during which we shot, but I am quite sure four cartridges out of every five fired were ineffective. I think the Ashy-headed Green Pigeon is as fast as any of its tribe, certainly a good deal faster than its bigger cousin, the Bengal Pigeon, and quite as fast as the little Tveron, whilst the Pin-tailed and Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon are a trifle slower. These latter birds are, moreover, far more direct in their flight, and do not resort to the constant twistings and dodgings which seem habitual to the species we are now dealing with. Like most other Green Pigeon, they are really rather shy birds, but when feeding in thickly foliaged trees often trust to the effective blending of their colours with the leaves to escape detection. I have known cases in which a bird has been shot out of a tree without the rest of the flock taking to flight, and which, in fact, were not discovered until a second or third shot at other birds approaching the tree frightened them out of it. As a rule, however, the first shot at any one of their number sends them in a hurry from their tree, but always by the side away from the shooter, so that it is but seldom that he can get in another shot as they quit. They are wonderful climbers, and have great strength of grasp D 34 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES with their feet, wounded birds often seizing a twig or branch and hanging on, head downwards, until they drop off dead, and sometimes even after death the feet retain their hold. They are not, however, quick in their movements about a tree, and are very parrot-like in their actions, especially as they clamber slowly down some hanging branch towards a tempting cluster of fruit or berries. They are, of course, entirely vegetarian in their diet, but not entirely frugivorous, for they will eat grain of all kinds, and also the tiny new buds of some kinds of trees and bushes. They are very partial to the fruit of the ber tree, and it is incredible the amount and weight of the berries they will cram into their crops, which get so distended and distorted that they look as if they must burst. Naturally, when a shot bird falls to the ground its crop does burst, and as the dense plumage also comes off very easily, birds when gathered often present a very dishevelled appearance. For this reason, also, it is very hard to obtain good specimens for the museum, and not one bird in three shot is any good for this purpose. Greediness appears not to have any ill effect on Green Pigeons, which are generally in excellent condition, often having regular layers of fat between the skin and the flesh. All Green Pigeons are very good for the table, but they should be skinned and not plucked only, for their skins are very tough and sometimes seem to give a rather rank taste to the flesh. The best way of all to cook them is to jug them in claret, and the next best to roast them in a ball of clay, which keeps in all the juices but takes away skin and feathers complete when the ball is opened. I have above noted that this little Green Pigeon is entirely vegetarian in its diet, but this is not quite correct, for, like almost every other bird and animal, it will greedily eat white ants. For this purpose it descends to the ground and runs about quite actively, seizing both those termites which drop to the ground on losing their wings and those which are just emerging from their nest-holes. It will also descend to the ground to eat strawberries or other fruit growing on ground-plants. This species sometimes assembles in very large flocks, and I think I have seen one or two which must have numbered over two hundred ; as a general rule, however, they will be found in flocks of anything from half a dozen to thirty or forty. Even during the breeding-season ASHY-HEADED GREEN PIGEON 35 the birds seem to be more or less gregarious though, perforce, they have to break up into comparatively small flocks. At the same time, I do not remember any month of the year in which I have not seen them in small flocks, as well as singly or in pairs. Nor are these small flocks composed of young birds or unwilling bachelors and spinsters, for birds examined have been proved to be fully adult, whilst both sexes have been seen or shot in the same flocks. The note of the Ashy- headed Green Pigeon has been described as being less musical than that of some of the other Green Pigeons, but I cannot say that I have noted this to be the case. It may be somewhat less varied and with a smaller range of notes, but to me it sounds as soft and melodious as any of its cousins, except perhaps bisincta, the Orange-breasted Green Pigeon. When they are quite undisturbed and have no idea that anyone is watching or listening to them, the members of a flock will continue to whistle to one another as they feed, and the volume of sound thus made is very sweet and full. Although, as I have said, naturally shy birds, they very soon become used to being watched, and if not fired at or interfered with in any way, soon lose their shyness and become very tame. In one of the police-stations in the Dibrugarh district some enormous pepul trees grow in the compound, two of their number overhanging the station-building itself. Here the birds are so accustomed to people constantly moving about below them, that they take absolutely no notice and, as they are never fired at in the compound, the birds swarm here, even when the trees are not in fruit, when firing is going on anywhere near. I do not think that the Ashy-headed Green Pigeon drinks regularly morning or evening, but I have noticed more than once these birds drinking about noon, when they have ceased feeding and were about to take their mid-day rest. Invariably, when noticed on these occasions, the birds drank by climbing down the cane-brakes or creepers which stood in swamps, until they could reach the water, when they drank their fill, and then clambered back to a more convenient perch. They rest much in the middle of the day in cane-brakes, which form dense masses of jungle in the morasses at the foot of the hills, though they also frequent tall tree-forest for the same purpose. Like all their relations, I am sorry to say that they are very D2 36 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES quarrelsome and pugnacious birds, and it is quite impossible to keep two captive birds in the same cage during the breeding-season, for the males will fight until exhausted or seriously injured, whilst the females are often nearly as bad. I have never myself succeeded in getting them to breed in captivity, but they are such easy birds to tame and do so well in aviaries, that the matter should not be difficult. In the Calcutta Zoological Gardens these Pigeons used to pair freely, and would go as far as partially building nests, but the few eggs they laid were casually dropped about anywhere but in the nests. (5) OSMOTRERON POMPADORA AFFINIS (Jerdon). THE GREY-FRONTED GREEN PIGEON. Vinago aromatica (part) Jerdon, Madr. J.L.S., XII p. 13 (1840), nec Columba aromatica Gin. Vinago affinis Jerdon, l.c. 9. Vinago malabarica Jerdon, Ill. Orn., III, letterpress pl. xxtv (1845); Blyth, Cat: B.M.A.S.B. p. 229; id., J.A.S.B., XXI p. 56. Treron malabarica Blyth, J.A.S.B., XIV p. 852; id., Cat., p. 229. Osmotreron malabarica Bp., Con. Av., IL p. 13; Jerdon, B.I., p. 450; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 493; Fairbank, Str. Feath., IV p. 261; Hume and Bourd, ib., p. 403; Hume, ib., p. 424; id. Cat. no. 775; Fairbank Str. Feath., V p. 408; Vidal, ib., [X p. 74; Butler, ib., p. 419; Davidson, ib., X p. 406; Barnes, B. Bom., p. 286; Oates, in Hume’s Nests and Eggs, 2nd ed., II p. 375; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 45; Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 54; Oates, Cat. Eggs B.M., I p. 82; Barnes J.B.N.HLS., V p. 329; Davidson, ib., XII p. 61. Osmotreron affinis Wal., Trans. Z.S., IX p. 212; Blanf., Avi. Brit. L, IV p. 8; Fergusson J.B.N.H.S., XVI p. 1. Vernacular Name. Poda-putsa Guwa, Tel. Description.—Adult male. Similar to O. p. phayrei, but the upper-parts in this subspecies are considerably deeper in colour, in fact, more a purple- than a chestnut-maroon; there is never any orange on the breast, and in both males and females the grey of the head is duller and darker, and ill defined from the surrounding green. In addition to this, the male has the shoulder of the wing very much blacker and not mixed with grey. Adult female. The female affinis differs from the male in the same way as that of phayrez differs from the male of that subspecies. As I have already pointed out, all the differences between this subspecies and the others is one of degree only. Thus, there are some otherwise typical specimens of phayrei which have the heads dull and the grey ill defined ; here and there are some with no orange on the breast and, whilst in some males of phayrei the back is nearly as dark as the typical affinis, in this latter subspecies there are a few which have their backs and scapulars quite as pale as the normal phayrez. Colours of the soft parts are the same as in phayret. Measurements. “Length about 10.75; tail 3.6; wing 5.75; tarsus .8 ; bill from gape .9” (Blanford). This is a decidedly smaller bird, on an average, than the last, though the measurements overlap and birds from Khandesh seem a good deal bigger than the smallest phayret, but all over the area they inhabit there is a considerable range in their extremes of size. 38 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES The wings of males I have measured vary from 5.44 in. ( = 138.2 mm.) to 5.92 ( = 150.3 mm.) in length, the average of sixty birds being 5.61 in. ( = 142.5 mm.). The females do not appear to be any smaller than the males, and the biggest male in the British Museum series is no bigger than the largest female. Colours of soft parts of both sexes. ‘The soft basal part of the bill is glaucus green, but the tips of both mandibles are ashy. The iris is blue with an outer ring of pink or lake red.” (Fairbank.) “Legs and feet lake pink ; claws bluish white ” (Davison). Distribution. Blanford thus notes on the distribution of this Green Pigeon : “ Forests of the Malabar Coast from the neighbourhood of Bombay to Cape Cormorin. Jerdon states that he also obtained this bird in Central India and in the Eastern Ghats; but neither the late Doctor V. Ball, nor I, met with this species in the area specified ; the name does not occur in either of the lists of Shevaroy birds (for which I am indebted to Mr. Daly and Mr. Worth), and no one, as far as I know, has obtained this bird away from the Malabar Coast since Jerdon’s time.” Davidson (l.c.) says that it is very common in Kanara, and extends as far east as Birchia, but is rare beyond Sirsi, and that he had not noticed it either in Musyodi or Halzae. Bourdillon reports it as common in suitable localities in Travancore, but Davison did not find it abundant either in the Wynaad or in Mysore. It also occurs in the Lacadives. Nidification. The Grey-fronted Green Pigeon breeds throughout its range, principally in February and early March, but its eggs may be taken at any time between the beginning of January and the end of April. Barnes records that this “is much the commonest Green Pigeon in Kanara . . . both above and below the Ghata. I have taken numbers of the nests, which are generally slight structures placed from 8 to 15 ft. from the ground, and mostly in small trees. The male is quite as commonly seen incubating the eggs as the female.” Mr. J. Darling’s account agrees with Barnes, and he describes the nest as “a slight ragged, shapeless thing composed of thin dry twigs laid together in a very disreputable fashion, with a circular central depression lined with a few grass stalks. The nests were 5 or 6 in. in diameter; the depression hardly more than } in. in depth. The eggs measured 1.12 in. by 0.8.” Normally, this Pigeon, like others of the genus, undoubtedly prefers scrub-jungle and small trees or saplings as a site for its nest, but Mr. F. W. Bourdillon found its nest in the Assamboo Hills built on the bough of a tree at 40 ft. from the ground. In colour the eggs are, as usual, a pure white. The shape and texture does not differ from that of other Green Pigeons’ eggs. They vary in length between 1.08 in. (= 27.6 mm.) and 1.17 ( = 29.7 mm.), and average 1.12 by .86 ( = 28.4 by 21.8 mm.). In breadth they only vary between .84 in. ( = 21.3 mm.) and .88 ( = 22.3 mm.). I have only seen a very small series of these eggs and a larger number would probably show a greater difference between extremes of size. In habits there seems to be nothing peculiar to this species of Green Pigeon calling for remark. It is, perhaps, more strictly a forest- bird than is the case with some, but like the others of this genus GREY-FRONTED GREEN PIGEON 39 wherever found, it is resident, merely moving higher up the hills in the hot weather and rains, JBourdillion says that it ascends as high as 3,000 ft. in Travancore, but Davison, possibly referring to other months, says that it does not ascend the hills at all. Though common enough in some parts of its distribution, the Grey- fronted Green Pigeon seems nowhere to be found in as vast numbers as is the Ashy-headed Green Pigeon. It collects also in rather smaller flocks, generally of half a dozen or so, and there appear to be no record of flocks much over twenty. Mr. F. W. Bourdillion says that it “ may be found in great numbers in the neighbourhood of the hill- men’s clearings, but in February and March they ascend the hills to over 2,000 ft. Their note is a low chuckling whistle.” This description of their call would, however, apply only to some of their notes, as other writers describe their whistle as a most beautiful and melodious sound, apparently much like that made by the other birds of this genus. (6) OSMOTRERON POMPADORA POMPADORA (Gm.). THE POMPADOUR GREEN PIGEON. Columba pompadora Gm., Syst. Nat., I p. 775 (1788); Blyth, J.AS.B., XIV p. 852. Treron pompadora Blyth, J.A.S.B., XXI p. 356. Vinago aromatica Jerdon, Madr. J.L.S., XII p. 18. Treron malabarica (part) Blyth, Cat. B.M.A.8.B., p. 229. Treron flavogularis id., J.A.S.B., XXVI p. 225. Osmotreron flavogularis id. ib., XX XI p. 344. Osmotreron pompadora Hume, Str. Feath., III p. 162; id. ib., VI p. 414; id., Cat. no. 777; Legge, B. Cey., p. 728; Parker, Str. Feath., [X p. 481 ; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 51; Blanf., Avi. Brit. I., IV p. 9; Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 54; Butler, J.B.N.H.S., X p. 311. Osmotreron pompadoura Jerdon, B.I., III p. 452. Vernacular Names. Batta-goya, Cing. ; Patcha-praa, Alam-praa, Tamil in Ceylon. Description. Adult male—The colour of the upper-parts where red, agrees in tint with the same parts in O. p. affinis. It differs from that subspecies in having the fore-head, lores, and sides of the head more yellowish and the chin and throat a pure, almost lemon-yellow. The grey of the crown is generally entirely replaced with green, though a few specimens have a fairly distinct patch of grey in the centre. The lower tail-coverts are a pale, bufty- white instead of cinnamon. Adult female. Differs from the male in the same way as they do in the other subspecies. Colours of soft parts. “Bill glaucous green, paling to bluish in the apical portion ; irides carmine red with a cobalt inner circle ; eyelids glaucous green; legs and feet purple-red ” (Legge). Measurements. Length about 10.5 in; tail 3.6; wing 5.6; tarsus .8 bill from gape .9 in. (Blanford). There is only a small series of these birds in the British Museum, but enough to show that the sexes do not differ materially, if at all, in size. The wings vary from 5.45 in. (= 138.4 mm.) to 5.76 ( = 146.2 mm.) and average 5.63 (= 142.8 mm.), the extremes in size being, in each case, the measure- ment of the wing of a female. Distribution. Ceylon.—Jerdon gives the habitat of this bird as Southern India also, but this is probably due to some mistake. Since Blanford wrote the Avifauna of British India, several field-ornithologists have worked Southern India well (amongst others who might be mentioned are Cardew, Fairbank, Bell, Dewar, Major Smith, Bourdillon, and others), but none have ever come across it. POMPADOUR GREEN PIGEON 4] Mr. J. Stuart has also worked Travancore for the last ten years or so with great thoroughness, employing an army of observers in the location of birds and nests, but has failed altogether to ever come across, or to obtain a specimen, of the Pompadour Green Pigeon. Nidification. There is practically nothing on record regarding the nidification of this Green Pigeon. Butler found a nest being built in June, but the bird did not lay, and no description is given of the nest. Parker, in Stray Feathers, merely states that the average of eight eggs is 1.15 in. by 0.88, and observes that “this bird deserts its nests on the least possible provo- cation.” One pair of Parker’s eggs sent to me was taken on 24.5.88, and is said to have come from “a small roughly-made nest of sticks placed in a sapling.” I have a fair series of these eggs taken by W. Jenkins, chiefly at or about Welgampola. They are, of course, pure white, and of the usual smooth but not very close texture, and in shape broad ellipses, with the exception of one pair, which are somewhat lengthened. They vary in length between 1.10 in. (= 27.9 mm.) by 1.21 ( — 30.7 mm.) and in breadth between .91 in. ( = 23.1 mm.) and .96 ( = 24.4 mm.). No nests were sent me with the eggs, but they were described as rough platforms of twigs interlaced with one another with the slightest of depressions in the centre, and measuring about 6 in. across. In no case was there any lining, and all the nests were either on high bushes or small trees in forests. This is a bird of both hill and plains country, being found at certain seasons at the level of the sea, and at others as high as 4,000 ft., whilst it is resident practically over the greater part of this area. The one essential is that the country should be well wooded, and it is seldom, if ever, to be found outside forest-land, or at least land that is well timbered, though it may wander into the open country, or short distances away from forest when tempted by plentiful feeding. It appears to be entirely frugivorous in its diet, though it would doubtless soon take to grain in captivity. A pair I saw in a cage in Slave Island, Ceylon, were fed entirely on bread and milk and plantains, and they seemed to be in a very good condition. There is very little on record about this Green Pigeon except as recorded by Legge in his Birds of Ceylon. He there writes: “ This Pigeon is an inhabitant of woods, forests, and open timbered country : it collects together in the fine Banyan, Bo, and Palu trees, which are scattered through the low jungles of the eastern and northern Districts, and also in the magnificent outspreading Mee trees which line the borders of the jungle tanks, and in such resorts feeds in flocks on the luscious berries which these large trees provide. Its flesh is at all times delicious; but when killed during the fruiting time of the Banyan and ironwood, there is nothing which surpasses this Pigeon in flavour 42 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES in the Island. It is ashy bird and difficult to kill, except when feeding ; it may then be easily shot out of large forest trees, provided the sports- man be concealed, as it feeds so greedily that many do not take flight on the discharge of a gun. They collect in groups of a dozen or more, in the early morning or after feeding, and sit motionless on the tops of trees. On being alarmed one or two dart off, and are followed by their companions, one after another, till the whole have taken flight. They are very strong on the wing, and fly with a steady straight course. Their note is a melodious, soft, modulated whistle, which can be precisely imitated, and by doing which many are enticed by ‘ Eurasians’ in the North of Ceylon, into uttering it, and are thus more easily descried in the green foliage and then shot. There is something peculiarly charming in their human-like notes when heard in the tops of lofty trees, overshadowing the mighty bunds by which the ancient Kings of Ceylon dammed up valleys, and skilfully formed vast reservoirs for the support of their subjects in the wild forests of the Vanni. In the Wellaway Korale, where the Pigeon is abundant, I have seen, as in the case of the two preceding species, large flocks in scattered company returning in the evening from their feeding ground, or from the widely dispersed waterholes of that district, and by remaining in wait for them in the same position I have had excellent shooting. Both this, and the Orange-breasted Pigeon, however, are very strong birds, and take more killing to bring them down, especially when perched, than almost any bird of the same size in Ceylon.” (7) OSMOTRERON POMPADORA CHLOROPTERA (Blyth). THE ANDAMANESE GREEN PIGEON. Treron chloroptera Blyth, J.A.S.B., XIV p. 852 (1845); id., Cat., p. 229. Osmotreron chloroptera Jerdon, B.I., IV p. 451; Ball, J.A.S.B., XLI pt. um. p. 286 ; id., Str. Feath., I p. 78 ; Hume, ib., II p. 258; id. ib., III p. 162 ; id. ib., VI p. 414; id., Cat. no. 777, bis; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 49; Blanf., Avi. Brit. I, IV p. 10; Sharpe Hand-List, I p. 54; Butler, J.B.N.H.S., XII p. 687; Osmaston, ib., XVII p. 488 ; Richmond, Proc. N.M.U.S., XXV p. 308. Osmotreron chloroptera andamanensis Butler, ib. Vernacular Names. None known. Description.—Adult male. Differs from the male of phayrei in having the lower wing-coverts green, of a darker, less yellow tinge than the neck, and the green of the upper-parts is more yellow except on the central rectrices. The maroon on the back is darker than it is in phayrei, and as dark as it is in affinis. There is no orange on the breast and the lower tail-coverts are dark, rather dull green, with broad yellowish-white borders. The grey of the head is lighter and unmixed with green on the fore-head, fading into the green of the lower half of the lores and also merging into the green of the neck, from which it is never sharply defined. Legs and feet pale carnation-pink or purplish-pink, claws horny or plumbeous tinged with pink; bill a whitish-blue or leaden-blue tinged with green near the base, and with plumbeous cere. Iris, first ring pale blue, second ring darker blue, and third ring fleshy-bufi. Orbital skin plumbeous, yellowish next the eye (from W. Davison’s notes). ‘Feet dull purple” (Butler). Dimensions. “Length about 12.5; tail 4; wing 6.75; tarsus 1, bill from gape 1.05” (Blanford). The wing-measurements of the series in the British Museum vary between 6.75 in. (= 171.4 mm.) and 7.2 ( = 182.9 mm.) and average 6.91 in. ( = 175.5 mm.). Davison gives the weight of a big male as being .75 lb. Adult female. Similar to the male, but wanting the maroon on the upper-parts. The cap of grey is perhaps even less well-defined and duller in colour. Colours of soft parts, as in male. Davison says that the iris is “ pale blue blending into puce.” “ Bill leaden greenish at base and on cere ” (Butler). 44 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES Dimensions much the same as in the male. The females in the British Museum series have an average wing-measurement of 6.93 in. (= 176.0 mm.). Young male of the year is always smaller than the adult, and has the purple-maroon of the upper-parts imperfectly developed. Dr. Richmond (Lc.) separates the birds inhabiting the Andamans from those inhabiting the Nicobars on account of their smaller size and general darker colour both above and below. He says that “the pigeon from the Andamans is similar to O. chloroptera from the Nicobars, but rather smaller, colour somewhat darker below; breast and sides deeper yellowish-green, and under tail-coverts more yellowish. The throat is yellower than in O. chloroptera.” Dr. Richmond appears to have obtained only three females of the Andaman form, and a very careful examination of a larger series than that examined by him shows that the grounds upon which he creates his new subspecies do not hold good. The biggest male in the British Museum collection is a bird with a wing of 182.9 mm. from the Nicobars, whilst the biggest female is a bird from the Andamans. On the other hand, the smallest male birds in the collection are two with wings of 171.4 mm., of which one comes from the Nicobars and the other from the Andamans. As regards coloration, I can see no differences that are not individual only, and dark and light coloured birds are found equally often in either group of islands. I think therefore the subspecies Osmotreron chloroptera andamanensis must be suppressed. Distribution. The Andamans and Nicobar Islands. Nidification. Beyond the facts noted below, which would lead one to infer that May and June are probably two of its breeding-months, we know nothing about its nidification, and its nest and eggs have yet to be discovered. There is practically nothing on record about the habits of this form of Green Pigeon. Davison, in Stray Feathers, has the following short note: “This Hurrial is exceedingly abundant, both at the Andamans and Nichobars, more so at the former than at the latter place. It is always in flocks, keeping generally to the larger forest trees during the heat of the day, but coming into gardens and clearings, or wherever there may be trees with fruit, in the morning and evening. Its fine clear whistling note (very like, but more powerful than that of O. malabarica) is one of those most frequently heard in the jungles about Port Blair. A few days before leaving Port Blair for Calcutta I noticed one of these Pigeons with a twig in its bill fly into the top of a tall slender tree standing just on the outskirts of the forest. This was in May, so it is probable that these birds breed during that and the following month.” Messrs. B. B. Osmaston and A. L. Butler both record the bird as being abundant in the Andamans, and the ANDAMANESE GREEN PIGEON 45 latter adds that a bird he shot in the month of May was apparently breeding. The above exhausts all that has hitherto been written about this Pigeon, and I have not béen able to elicit anything further about its habits. (8) OSMOTRERON FULVICOLLIS (Wagl.). THE CINNAMON-HEADED GREEN PIGEON. (PLATE 2.) Columba fulvicollis Wagl., Sys. Av. sp. 8 (1827). Osmotreron fulvicollis Hume, Str. Feath., [IV p. 224; id., Cat. no. 776, bis; Hume and Dav., Str. Feath., VI p. 413; Oates, B. Burma, IT p. 311; Hume, Str. Feath., VIII pp. 67 and 109; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 52; Blanf., Avi. Brit. I, IV p. 10; Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 53; Butler, J.B.N.H.S., XII p. 772; Harington, B. Burma, p. 117. Treron fulvicollis Blyth, Cat. B.M.A.8.B., p. 339; Everett, J.S.B.A.8., p. 196 (part). Vernacular Names. None recorded. Description.—Adult male. Head, neck, and upper-breast cinnamon ; above darker and tinged with purple, below paler and more yellow, changing gradually to orange-ochre on the lower-breast. Interscapulars, scapulars, back, and lesser wing-coverts purple-maroon; rump slate changing into olive-green on the upper tail-coverts. Central tail-feathers above dull olive- green, the others olive-grey with a pure grey terminal band and a subterminal black one. Abdomen mixed yellowish-green and grey, varying very greatly in their proportions in different individuals ; flanks dark dove-grey, becoming deep slate-grey posteriorly ; tibial plumes and vent bright yellow, much mixed with slate; under tail-coverts dull cinnamon, the longer often with green centres. Under aspect of tail black with grey tip. Primaries black, very narrowly margined on the outer webs and on the terminal quarter of the inner webs with yellowish-white; winglet, secondaries, greater and median coverts black with yellow margins, broadest on the inner secondaries ; innermost secondaries glossed with olive-green; under wing-coverts and axillaries french-grey. Colours of soft parts. “‘ Legs and feet purplish pink, claws white, lower mandible to angle of gonys and upper mandible to just beyond nostril deep red, rest of bill dead white, strongly tinged with greenish blue. Iris buffy pink; naked space round eye plumbeous green” (Davison). The edges of the iris are orange. Measurements. “Length about 10.5; tail 3.6; wing 6; tarsus .8; bill from gape .8” (Blanford). The series I have examined have wings varying between 5.85 in. (= 148.5 mm.) and 5.40 (= 136.2 mm.), and average 5.65 in. (= 143.5 mm.). Adult female. Has the cinnamon and maroon of the upper-parts replaced by dull olive-green and below by pale yellowish-green, more or less mixed with grey on the abdomen. The crown from the fore-head to the nape is grey, showing in good contrast to the greenish supercilia. The chin in some Q WW) (a)