78 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



Pigeon, nor have I ever heard of such, but they always form a certain 

 percentage of any bag of Green Pigeon made in Assam and, in the hUls 

 above 4,000 ft., this and the Wedge-tailed bird are far the most common 

 forms to be met vnth. 



In North Cachar at a place below Hungrum, at about 5,000 ft. 

 elevation, I once had an evening's very pretty shooting at these two 

 species, getting eighteen couple of these, a few Grey-headed Pigeon and a 

 single Treron. The birds were feeding on two clumps of trees divided by 

 a shallow dip in which hUl-rice had been grown, and where stDl stood a 

 few of the creeping beans always grown by the Nagas beside the path- 

 ways intersecting these plots of rice. Hiding by a clump of these creepers 

 in the middle of the dip, I sent some Naga youngsters to either group of 

 trees to keep the birds on the move, and thus had very sporting shots as 

 the startled birds swept down the slopes towards me and made for the 

 trees on the far side. For a couple of houi's the birds contmued to 

 flight backwards and forwards until dusk fell with the usual startling 

 rapidity of the East ; the birds disappeared, and gathering the spoils 

 we made our way home to camp. 



Hume found this species very common in Manipur, and has recorded 

 the followmg interesting notes upon its habits : " They are rather stupid 

 birds. You mark a flock on to a tree ; you get under it and walk roimd, 

 peering up into the green depths. You know that there are at least 

 twenty large birds above you, and you know by falling berries and 

 twigs that they are hard at work feeding, but they keep quite quiet, 

 and it is often quite impossible, even with binoculars, to see a single 

 bird, embowered as they sit in leaves coloiu-ed precisely like themselves. 

 Then you shout, and kick the trunk of the tree, and stand eager for a 

 shot, but ' they sit beside the nectar ' careless of the bolts below, 

 and at last you adopt the only feasible plan, and that is to get someone 

 to fire mto the tree at a bird, if he has chanced to spy one, otherwise 

 by guess, and take a brace as they fly off. These guess shots are by 

 no means always thrown away, one such one day brought down four 

 birds. Notwithstanding the firing of these barrels one or two are 

 generally sure to return to the tree and settle on it before your e3'es 

 in less than a minute, when, of course, seeing them ahght, it is easy 

 to pot them. But m from ten minutes to half an hour the whole of 

 the rest of the flock is sure to return, and though you drop a couple of 

 them as they pass to the tree, the rest ahght as if nothing had happened. 



