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



bill, they present a gradation from the strongest beak that occurs 

 throughout the order, to a feeble organ, soft and tumid to near 

 its tip, which alone is corneous ; but the gape, especially in the 

 latter case, is very capacious. The tarsi are short, stout, and 

 more or less feathered ; and the toes (except in one subgenus) 

 are remarkably broad-soled, and are furnished with strong and 

 sharp claws, commonly much-hooked; hence they have great 

 power of clasping, or holding on to the small branches of trees, 

 while straining to pluck the fruit or berries from the terminal 

 sprays ; so that, when feeding, these birds may be commonly 

 observed to lean over and downward so far as to be inverted, and 

 then draw themselves back by the unaided muscular strength of 

 the extremities. The flight of all is powerful and rapid. Three 

 strongly-marked genera occur, numerous species of which in- 

 habit the warm regions of the Old World, Australia, and Poly- 

 nesia j but from America they are wholly excluded. 



Genus Treron, Vieillot : Vinago, Cuvier. [Hurrial and 

 Hurrwa^H.-f HurteljBeng.; iV^^oo, Arracan.) The Hurrials. 



In this genus may be observed the gradation in form of bill 

 that has been adverted to in its full extent ; but all the strong- 

 billed species are here included. The plumage is blent and 

 glossless, and almost without exception of a lively green, varied 

 with ashy, and with a stripe of bright yellow on the wings mar- 

 gining their coverts; while the males are commonly further 

 adorned with a deep maroon hue* on the mantle, and with 

 orange, or orange and lilac, on the breast. Irides crimson, with 

 a blue ring encircling the pupilf. The voice a melodious deep- 

 toned whistle, considerably prolonged and varied in diiferent 

 cadences. Nidification as in most other arboreal doves and 

 pigeons, and two white eggs produced, of a somewhat less elon- 

 gated shape than in common pigeons. Except in the pairing 

 season, these birds collect in small, or moderately large flocks, on 

 the topmost branches of high jungle trees, where, if one can be 

 descried and is shot at, two or three will commonly fall, that had 

 eluded observation from the similarity of their colouring to that 

 of the foliage. They subsist on fruits and berries of all kinds, 

 and during the season especially on the small figs of the Ficus 

 indica and F. religiosa ; and they have likewise been observed 

 *^ devouring the blossoms and newly-formed fruit of the mangoe 



* This hue, in different shades of vinous or claret-colour, occurs in a 

 great number of ColumbidcB, and has been remarked to be almost peculiar 

 to the tribe. 



t A partial exception to this occurs in Tr. nipalemis only, among the 

 Indian species ; at least, the only two living specimens of this bird which 

 I have seen had dark red-brown irides, with a blue inner circle. Mr. Hodg- 

 son describes them as — " outer circle of the iris orange-red, inner circle 

 blue." 



