PIED IMPERIAL PIGEON 111 



in nearly all cases, as I have already said, it is most highly developed about 

 the head, especially round the gape. If, as I think, this tint is merely nutmeg 

 or some other vegetable stain, we should expect to find, as is the case, that 

 normally the head, which comes in constant contact with the fruit, most 

 deeply stained, and the abdomen and rump which the bird constantly preens 

 with its dye-covered bill, next most deeply marked. The tint fades consider- 

 ably after death, though persisting in regular patches here and there on the 

 body, and nearly always to some extent on the head. 



Distribution. Blanford thus defines the range of this beautiful Pigeon, 

 " From the Andamans and Nicobars through the Malay Archipelago to New 

 Guinea and Australia where a local form {M. spilorrhoa) occurs. This Pigeon 

 breeds in the Nicobars, and is a seasonal visitant to the Andamans, Cocos, 

 Narcondam, Barren Island, according to Blyth to the Mergui Archipelago, 

 but not, so far as is known, to the mainland of Tenasserim. According to 

 Dr. Mainjay, this species also visits the Islands only on the coast of the Malay' 

 Peninsula." Since this was \\Titten it has been procured by Mr. C. Hopwood's 

 collectors a little south of Sandoway in Arakan, Burma (1910), and long 

 prior to that Dr. A. L. Butler recorded them as occurring at Kuala Selangor 

 on the mamland of the Malay Peninsula, and it would therefore appear that 

 this bird regularly, if in no great numbers, is found on the mainland of Burma 

 from the latitude of Sandoway all do\m the Malay Peninsula. Mr. Hopwood's 

 men, moreover, it should be noted, knew the bird well, and said that they 

 were numerous, breeding on the islands off the coast, and visiting the mainland 

 during the winter months. 



Nidification. Davison failed to actually take the nest, but writes : 

 " Although I did not obtain the nests or eggs of this bird myself, from all I 

 could ascertain from the convicts, etc., these birds breed in January, February, 

 and March, building their nests, which, like those of other Pigeons, are merely 

 platforms of sticks, by preference in the mangroves, and laying usually only 

 one white egg." 



Captain Wimberley took its egg on Trinkut Island during the first week 

 of February, and describes its nest as being similar to that of an English 

 Wood-Pigeon, placed in an old mangrove tree overhanging a river. It con- 

 tained one addled egg measuring 1.78 in. by 1.25, of the usual shape and 

 description. I have a nice series of these eggs in my collection taken by 

 Mr. B. B. Osmaston at South Sentinel Island on the 17th March, 1907, and 

 kindly given by him to me. In shape these eggs are rather long ovals, almost 

 ellipses, and in one or two cases distinctly pointed at both ends. The texture 

 is very fine and close with a smooth surface, in some cases decidedly glossy. 

 They vary in length between 1.73 ( = 43.9 mm.) and 1.90 in. ( = 48.2 mm.), 

 and in breadth between 1.24 ( = 31.4 mm.) and 1.30 in. ( = 33 mm.), the 

 average being 1.8 ( = 46.2 mm.) by 1.26 in. ( = 32 mm.). 



Mr. Osmaston describes the taking of these eggs in the Bombay Natural 

 History Journal as follows : " We found the Island simply swarming with the 

 Pied Imperial Pigeon, and it was not long before we discovered a nest 

 containing a single fresh egg, followed by many others. Altogether we 

 found some 50 nests containing each a single egg, some fresh, some more or 

 less incubated. 



" The nests were not, as a rule, close together. They were placed near 

 the tops of small trees, or on the lower branches of big ones, usually about 

 25 ft. from the ground. One nest I found was only 10 ft. from the ground, 

 but this was exceptional. 



