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 miUtary 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 anjr^vhere where food is plentiful. 

 Even the seasons, however, do not completely cut them off from 

 civiUzation, for they have been foimd breeding in the Botanical Gardens 

 in Calcutta, and a few may always be met with about the better wooded 

 surroxmdings of Barakpore and Serampore. 



Although, however, it may be found in many liiUy districts and, 

 indeed, up to some height in the foot-liills of the Himalayas, it i?, 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 groimd where the hiUs 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 fomid all along 

 the Terai in the foot-hills, and in the DarjeeUng 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 

 surroTuiding 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 amomit 

 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 merety 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 



