112 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



" The nest is the usual flimsy platform of sticks through which the egg 

 is usually visible from below. 



" The eggs are, of course, pure white, generally rather elongated ovals 

 with a fair amount of gloss. The measurements are as follows : — 



" Longest egg 1.91 by 1.26 in. 

 " Shortest egg 1.67 by 1.20 m. 

 " Mean of 28 eggs 1.80 by 1.24 in." 



Butler has the following interesting notes on this Pigeon in the 

 Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society : "A strikingly hand- 

 some bird, it associates in large flocks, and fifty or sixty dashing with a 

 clatter of wings out of a tall tree, their black and white pliunage sho^ving 

 up vividly against the background of green foliage, are a sight to gladden 

 the eyes of a naturalist wandering in these steamy jungles. Though one 

 would hardly think it, their boldly pied colouring of jetty black and 

 cream colour is more or less protective. On the wing they are, of course, 

 conspicuous, but among the shifting lights and shadows of a thickly -leafed 

 tree on which the sunlight is falling, they are extremely hard to make out. 

 I have known a flock were in the branches above me, and yet perhaps 

 only one bird on the outside of the tree with the light shining on its bright 

 breast would be visible. Their note is a chuckling hu-hu-hu. 



" In his paragraph on its distribution, I see Mr. Blanford quotes 

 Dr. Maingay as stating that this Pigeon only occurs on the Islands down 

 the coast of the Malay Peninsula. This is incorrect, it certainly keeps 

 principally to the small islets of the coaist, but only this week I shot three, 

 and saw several more at Kuala Selangor on the mainland of the Peninsula." 



On the islands it frequents, this Pigeon seems to be extraordinarily 

 plentiful, and as tame as numerous, so that where it is not feeding on 

 trees more than usually high, it is very easy to kill. Hume speaks of 

 kiUing fifty of them in a very short time, and the limit obtainable seems 

 to have been only restricted by cartridges and the anxiety to get other 

 species. Davison speaks of the islands being " simply alive with them," 

 whilst so little did this and the next species fear the presence of man 

 that one of the latter allowed him to get close enough to shoot it with a 

 waUcmg-stick gun. 



The food of this Pigeon seems to be entirely frugivorous and, when 

 in season, the favourite diet is a species of wild nutmeg (myristica sp.), 

 " conspicuous with their blood red orillas, fruits that no one could believe 

 that even this large Pigeon could swallow, but two or three of which we 

 took out of the crops of every bird we killed." 



