74 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



exceptional cases ; bill from gape about .95 in. { = 24.1 mm.) and from front 

 about .6 ( = 15.24 mm.) ; tarsus about .95 in. ( = 24.1 mm.). 



Weight from Qi to 7i or 8 oz. Cripps gives their weight as up to 

 9J oz., but these must be exceptionally fat, big birds. 



Throughout its great range there is no constant variation in the size of 

 this bii-d, and specimens I have received from the extreme south have had 

 wings above the general average, although this, the average, in southern 

 Burma may be a little less than it is in Nepal and the Himalayan Terai. 

 The largest bird measured comes from DarjeeUng, and the smallest from 

 Manipur. 



Adult female, and male in first plumage. Differs from the adult male 

 generally in bemg duller everywhere, but more especially about the head. 

 The grey of the hind-neck is either absent or very faintly indicated, and 

 there is never any orange-pink on the breast ; the under tail-coverts are duller 

 and paler, the outer webs being almost entirely white, with the centres 

 marked with dull sage-green. 



Colours of soft parts. " Legs and feet deep coral red, claws pale brown ; 

 corneous tips of the mandible pale homy green, rest of the mandible and 

 bare lores bright, pale smalt blue, skin of eyes duller and more leaden, irides 

 — inner ring blue, outer coral red " (Davison). 



Davison seems to distinguish two points of difference between the male 

 and female in coloration of the soft parts, i.e. in the bill and outer ring of 

 the iris. As regards these two points however, after examination of a very 

 large number of birds alive and freshly killed, I can detect no differences that 

 are not individual rather than sexual. The green tint of the bill is often 

 present in both sexes, and the bill of the female Ls often as clear a smalt or 

 lavender-blue as that of the male. The outer ring of the iris seems also 

 to vary to exactly the same extent. It is possible, however, that the 

 lavender-blue of the orbital-skin is brighter in the male than in the female 

 in most cases. 



Measurements. The females average a trifle smaller than the males, 

 the length of wing varying between 6.15 in. ( = 156.2 mm.) and 6.75 

 ( = 171.5 mm.), the average being about 6.5 ( = 164.7 mm.) ; the tail is 

 generally much shorter, being but little over 6 in. ( = 152.4 mm.), though 

 a specimen from Manipur in the British Museum collection has a tail measuring 

 6.9 in. ( = 175 mm.). Davison gives the weight as about 7 oz. 



The young male resembles the adult female, but partially acquires the 

 grey on the hind-neck and the pink breast at the first autumn-moult, but 

 not the dark under tail-coverts until the following spring. The long tail- 

 feathers are not obtained until the bird is a year old, and these probably 

 increase in length at each subsequent moult until the bird is three years old. 



Measurements. The wings of both young males and females in the 

 autumn of the first year average little over 6 in. in length, and such birds, 

 even if very fat, seldom exceed 6 oz. in weight. 



Distribution. Throughout the Himalayas and the broken country at 

 their bases, from Kumaon in the west to Sadiya in the east, the mountain 

 ranges of Assam south of the Brahmapootra, thence throughout the hill- 

 ranges of Burma, Chin Hills, Shan States into the Malay States, whence I have 

 a skin of a bird shot on the nest. A straggler only in the plains-districts of 

 eastern Bengal, but not rare in the plains of the Brahmapootra and Surrma 

 Valleys. 



