Mr. E. Blyth's Drafts for a Fauna Indica. 103 



most tail-feather having its external web gradually more albescent 

 to the base. Irides brownish-orange, the lids bluish-white ; bill 

 black, with a white mealiness at the tumid base of its upper man- 

 dible ; and legs reddish-pink. Length 13 by 33 inches ; of wing 

 8J inches. 



Mr. Jerdon rightly remarks — " The blue pigeon abounds all 

 over India, being occasionally found in the more open spaces of 

 jungles, especially in rocky districts and in the neighbourhood 

 of water-falls; but more generally in the open country, inhabit- 

 ing walls of villages, pagodas, wells, and any large buildings, 

 and breeding chiefly in old walls. ^' Another observer, writing 

 of it in the eastern districts of Bengal, remarks : " Large colonies 

 of these birds inhabit every moogur, mhut*, and mass of ruins 

 in the country, where, in company with the (house) mynah and 

 (rose-ringed) parroquet, they multiply to a vast extent; and 

 the more so, as being held in religious veneration by some, and 

 in special favour by all natives, their destruction is prevented 

 wherever there exists the power. They are so devoid of timidity, 

 that even in the midst of crowded cities, they will build on the 

 cornices in the open verandahs of inhabited houses. When this 

 takes place in the dwelling of a native, their tenure is secure ; as 

 their making such selection is looked upon as a happy omen, and 

 their dismission as the sure forerunner of evil fortune. Pairs 

 frequently take up their quarters among the domestic pigeons of 

 the dove-cot ; indeed it is not an easy matter to prevent their 

 doing so, and intermingling the breed. In the cold weather they 

 flock and frequent the paddy-stubble in large numbers f.^^ Capt. 

 Hutton informs me that this bird *^ is found in Affghanistan, 

 where, as in many parts of India, it builds in wells and ruined 

 buildings : the kazeezes, or Artesian wells of Affghanistan, are 

 sometimes crowded with them. They occur also in the Doon, 

 and are known as the common blue pigeon. At Mussoorie, I 

 have only seen them in the cultivated fields, low down on the 

 sides of hills, in warm situations {.^^ 



Being the original stock of the domestic pigeons of India, some 

 notice of the latter should here be introduced. I have not, how- 

 ever, paid much attention to the several varieties ; the more choice 



differences, whether of size, proportions or colouring, and if they manifest 

 no tendency to grade from one to the other, except in cases of obvious inter- 

 mixture, we are justified in considering them as distinct and separate; and 

 more especially if each, or either, has a wide range of geographic distribu- 

 tion, without exhibiting any climatal or local variation. 



* Rude Hindoo temple. 



f India Sporting Review, No. 4, 121. 



\ Columha intermedia is exceedingly common in Chota Nagpore, breed- 

 ing in all the steep lofty rocks of that country. — T. 



