PIN-TAILED GREEN PIGEON 79 



and so da capo. One afternoon at Matchi I bagged thirteen without 

 moving, sitting in the shade under a stockade that commanded a fair 

 shot at all birds crossing to and leaving a tree which happened for the 

 day to be the object of their devotions. Their flight is smooth but 

 not very rapid." 



As already described this Green Pigeon and all others of the sub- 

 family resort very regularly to certain fruit-bearing trees, and it is 

 most probable that although Hume continued to get shots at them 

 time after time, it was not the same flock at which he fired on each 

 occasion. All the birds within a certain area, often a very large one, 

 resort to the tree or clump of trees which, as Hume says, for the time 

 being is the object of their devotions, and my own experience has 

 certainly not shown me that these birds are as anxious to court 

 destruction as Hume makes out to be the case. 



