GREEN IMPERIAL PIGEON 93 



and north-east of its range, this Pigeon averages a good deal smaller than those 

 in the more central portions, but that the size is so variable in individuals 

 throughout both, that no geographical race can be established. 



Hume has dealt ^^•ith the alleged differences between the geographical 

 races in Vol. II. of Stray Feathers, and there he thus sums up the differences 

 between the Andamanese birds and others : " Taking a very large series, the 

 fully adult birds have the frontal band and chin purer white, and the lower 

 tail coverts a deeper maroon chestnut than in any Continental birds I have 

 yet seen. As a race it is of the largest size, greener, with deejDer coloured under 

 tail coverts and whiter forehead and throat than any Continental race taken 

 as a whole." 



As a matter of fact, an examination of the huge series in the British 

 Museum will show that of these characteristics the green or bronze of the upper- 

 parts is purely an individual matter, and that all the other points are slio\vn 

 even more strongly in many birds from the north-east frontier of India than 

 they are in the Andamanese birds. Thus it is as impossible to separate the 

 Andamanese form as it is to separate that of Ceylon. 



Of the Hainan bii'ds there is but a small series available for comparison, 

 but there is no doubt that these are very deeply coloured as a whole, and are, 

 as I have already shou-n, very small. Until, however, a much larger series 

 have been examined I shall not attempt to differentiate them. 



Distribution. Salvadori gives the habitat of this Imperial Pigeon as 

 being " India, Ceylon, Andamans, Indo-Burmese Countries, Cochin-China, 

 Hainan, Sunda Islands with Lombok and Flores, The Philippines and Zula 

 Islands." Within Indian limits its distribution is rather curious, but may 

 be said generally to follow the line of combined ample rainfall and heavy 

 forest. It is common in Ceylon and thence up the north-west of India, 

 through Travancore and Malabar as far north in the Bombay Presidency as the 

 north of Kanara, where Davidson reports it as common in the Karwar district. 

 Jerdon remarks that he found it breeding in the forests of Central India, but 

 smce his time no one else seems to have found it there. On the east it extends 

 up the coast and tlirough the forested parts of Madras, Orissa, Bengal, and 

 Assam into the Indo-Burmese countries and back west along the Bhutan 

 and Sikhim Dooars and the Nepal Terai, whence I have received specimens. 

 It is found throughout the Chin Hills, Shan States and Burma generally 

 wherever the rauifall is sufficient and evergreen-forest grows, but appears 

 to be very rare in the north-central dry zone, though it is recorded as occurring 

 there by Harington. It is common in the Andamans, but is replaced in the 

 Nicobars by the next subspecies. 



Nidification. Throughout the north-eastern portion of its range, 

 April and May are the two principal months of the breeding-season, and 

 according to Legge and Jerdon the same would appear to be the case in the 

 south of India and Ceylon, but Davidson took an egg from a nest as early as 

 February in Kanara, though he also shot a female with an egg ready for 

 expulsion on the 30th April. Wimberley and Osmaston record their breeding 

 in the Andamans in April and May, though the former also took eggs near 

 Mt. Harriet in July, whilst in Burma, Hariagton, Hopwood, Bingham, and 

 others record their breeding-season as from February to May. Inglis states 

 that they breed in Cachar principally during the rains, but I have taken 

 very many eggs in that district, where April is certainly the month in which 

 most are laid, and I have seen very few laid after June ; at the same time 

 it must be remembered Inglis took his eggs in the plains whilst I took mine 

 in the hills. 



