52 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



to the huge banyan tree which forms one of the well-knoT^Ti sights of the 

 gardens, and there we saw a male bird '' bowing and scraping " to his little 

 mate : so evidently the spread of buildings for miles in all directions round 

 these gardens has not yet driven it away. 



The actions of the male Orange-breasted Green Pigeon when courting, 

 are those of the genus generally. The bird puffs out its feathers and waddles 

 up and down a bough, to and from the female, solemnly bobbmg its head 

 at regular intervals all the time — sometimes whistling its beautiful notes, 

 sometimes croaking and crooning in an undertone which it considers even more 

 seductive and musical. The female is content, as a rule, to feed whilst her 

 consort shows off, but she, too, will now and then indulge in a clumsy 

 step-dance, and bow and whttle in response to her mate's protestations 

 of love. 



Over most of its habitat this Green Pigeon is an early breeder : Oates 

 found it breeding in Pegu from March to May ; from the Malay States I have 

 received eggs laid in January, February, and March ; in Lower Burma 

 it appears to breed principally in February and March ; Imin took eggs 

 in Hill Tipperah in April, and Hodgson records its breeding-season in Nepal 

 as being from April to June ; in Dacca I found it breeding in March, and 

 throughout the plains districts of Bengal. I think March and April are the 

 principal breeding-months, but in the hill-ranges the favourite breeding- 

 season is from early April to late May. It must, however, be remembered 

 that all Green Pigeons are very irregular in their breeding-time, and doubtless 

 many have two broods, for though I have often taken eggs of this species 

 in early March, I have equally often taken fresh eggs m late August. 



The nest is a typical Green Pigeon's nest, but is even more flims y than most. 

 Writing long ago in the Bombay Natural History Journal about this bird, 1 

 recorded : " The nest of this species seems to be about the most primitive 

 of all Pigeons' nests. I have seen some which it would appear ridiculous 

 to suppose capable of holding a young brood, and how they do succeed in 

 so doing I cannot understand. I took one nest in 1893, in which I do not 

 think there were more than about a score of twigs used, and gaps showed 

 through the nest fully half an inch in diameter, only just small enough not 

 to allow of the eggs falling tlirough." 



They do not seem at all particular where they make their nests, but 

 generally select a site either inside fairly thick jungle or forest of some 

 kind, or else just on the outskirts of it. It is quite exceptional for the nest 

 to be placed in an isolated tree or clump of trees, though it may now and then 

 be taken in the large mango-orchards in Bengal, especially if these have been 

 somewhat neglected, and have a good deal of undergrowth in them. 



I have seen these nests placed well up in big trees twenty, twenty-five, 

 and even thirty feet from the ground. Others have been placed in small 

 saplings, thick high bushes, and in bamboo-clumps hardly beyond the reach 

 of a tall man ; whilst yet a few others have been built in cane-brakes m swamps, 

 in bushes and dwarf bamboos not four feet above the land or the water of 

 the swamps in which the cane-brakes grow. 



The nest takes but very few days to construct, both birds joining in the 

 work, the male doing most of the carrying of the twigs and the female placing 

 them in position. They work for a few^ hours only morning and evening, 

 and during the rest of the day feed and doze. The nest made, the two eggs 

 are generally laid with an interval of one day between, but sometimes, on 

 consecutive days ; and from tliis time onwards the male bird accepts all 

 the responsibilities of his position, taking half the duties of incubation, feeding 



