PREFACE. 



My reasons for writing a volume upon our Indian Pigeons and Dovea 

 are several, and I trust will be deemed sufiBcient 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 Museiun -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 foimd, bring them 

 to bag. 



Books referring to Pigeons and Doves, of course, aboimd ; but 

 they are difBcult 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 volimie is one 

 of foiu", 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 accoimts, but, wonderful book as this still is, it was written 

 nearly sixty years ago, and cannot but be somewhat out of date, aa 

 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 



