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 faU 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 Hoimdraw River." 



They are quite first-class Httle game-birds in every way. Tlieir 

 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 slo^\dng 

 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 

 roimd once or twdce in wide circles, departs the way it has come 

 without offering a possible shot. 



The most sporting way of shooting them is imdoubtedly 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 m 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. 



