JERDON'S IMPERIAL PIGEON 107 



Mr. J. Stewart also obtained this bird, together with its egg, at Ratnapura 

 ia Ceylon. 



Nidification. Bourdillon states that Jerdon's Imperial Pigeon " has 

 two broods in the year, but only lays one egg at a time. These two breeding- 

 seasons are in April and again in November. I have seen a bkd building 

 in the latter month, and have had the young bird brought to me in January. 

 The nest is a loose structure of twigs \\-ithout any lining, and exactly resembling 

 an English Wood-Pigeon's. I was so fortunate as to find a nest at an elevation 

 of 4,000 ft. above sea-level and 20 ft. from the ground, placed in a mass of 

 tangled scrub (Beesha travaticoria). The bird was sitting and returned to 

 look at the nest, so we had a full view of her. Besides this I have had an 

 egg sent me which had been taken at an equally high elevation. The egg 

 is white and rather glossy ; it is small for the size of the bird, being only 

 1.38 by 1 in." 



Davison, vide Barnes, took its egg and nest in Kanara in February, but 

 does not give details of the former, and elsewhere he merely remarks that 

 it resembles that of aenea. Mr. J. Stewart has taken numerous nests of the 

 Pigeon in Travancore, where he found it breeding in January, March, and 

 April, and has been so good as to send me a series of its eggs taken in that 

 district, together with an egg obtained by him in Ceylon in October. 



The series sent me range in length from 1.64 in. ( = 41.6 mm.) to 1.88 

 ( = 47.7 mm.), and in breadth between 1.21 in. ( = 30.7 mm.) and 1.36 

 ( = 34.4 mm.). 



They are of the usual ellipse shape, but a little smaller at one end than 

 the other, have a considerable gloss and a close fine texture, though not of 

 the fineness and hardness of those of the genus Columba. 



Jerdon's notes, written fifty years ago, are still the fullest account 

 we have of this Pigeon's habits in southern India. He writes : "It 

 associates in general in small parties, or in pairs, frequenting the loftiest 

 trees and feeding on various fruits. Its note is somewhat similar to that 

 of the last [C. aenea], but still deeper, louder and more groaning. 

 Tickell calls it a deep, short and repeated groan, woo woo woo. 



" During the hot weather, from the middle of April to the first week 

 in June, when the rains almost invariably commence on the Malabar 

 coast, large numbers of this Pigeon descend from the neighbouring 

 mountainous regions of Coorg and WjTiadd to a large salt swamp in the 

 neighbourhood of Cannanore, and there not only eat the buds of Aricennia 

 and other shrubs and plants that affect salt and brackish swamps, but 

 also (as I was credibly informed by several native Shikarees, to whom I 

 was first indebted for the information of these Pigeons roosting there) 

 pick up the salt earth on the edge of the swamp, and of the various creeks 

 and backwaters that intersect the ground. I visited this place towards 

 the end of May 1849, when many of the Pigeons had gone, as I was 

 informed, but even then saw considerable numbers flying about and feeding 

 on the buds of Aricennia, and then retiring a short distance to some lofty 



