BLUE HILL-PIGEON 145 



Bill .60 in. to .66 in. ( = 15.2 mm. to 16.7 mm.) at front, and about 

 .95 in. (= 24.1 mm.) from gape; tarsus 1.0 in. to 1.1 in. ( = 25.4 to 27.9 mm.). 

 Weight 8.8 oz. to 9.75 oz. (Scully). 



Adult female. Similar to the male. 



Colours of soft parts. The same as in the male. " Irides brick-red, 

 dark straw colour at pupillary margin." (Scully.) 



Measurements. The female would seem to average decidedly smaller 

 than the male, theaverage wing-measurement being only 8.73 in. ( =221.7 mm.) 

 although the biggest females have a wing up to 9.2 in. ( = 233.6 mm.). 



Weight 9.2 oz. (Scully). 



Young bird of the year. Grenerally the whole head, neck, and shoulders 

 are a dark slate-grey with no gloss of any kind, the breast is a dark grey-brown 

 with narrow rufous-brown edging to tlie feathers, but the depth of the colour 

 varies a good deal in individuals. The upper-parts are almost invariably 

 a less pure grey, being tinged with vinous, and the wing-coverts and scapulars 

 are the same, \\'ith narrow pale edges to tlie feathers. The feathers of the 

 rump are also browner than m the adult bird and have very narrow borders 

 of white. 



Colours of soft parts. Irides pale watery-brown, feet dull red, and the bill 

 horny-brown. 



In very young birds the pale margins to the feathers of the wing extend 

 to the feathers of the back also. 



Nestling, in dovm. Dull, pale bulBsh-yellow. 



Distribution. Blanford thus records the range of the Blue Hill Pigeon : 

 " Central Asia from Gilgit to south Siberia and Corea ; common in Tibet 

 and some of tJie drier valleys of the higlier Himalayas. Tliis Pigeon has 

 been recorded from Gilgit, Dras, Leh, and the upper Indus Valley generally, 

 Lahaul, Upper Kumaon and Tibet nortli of SLkhim, but specimens labelled 

 Kashmir, Sikhim and DarjUing in the British Museum Collection probably 

 come from more northern localities." Ward, however, reports them as 

 common in Kashmir, and says that it is " plentiful on the Ladak road, at 

 high altitudes of the side valleys of Kashmir, and in most of the northern 

 parts." It undoubtedly also occurs not uncommonly in the higher, barer 

 parts of Sikhim, and might tlierefore possibly straggle into Darjiling. It 

 has also been found in Nepal on the high bare uplands which are beyond the 

 forest line and are very rocky. 



In 1893 RothchUd and Hartert divided this Hill-Pigeon into two sub- 

 species (R. and H., Dm. Monatsb. 1893, I. p. 41) i.e. Columba rupestris 

 rupestris from the Amur region, type from Dauria, and Columba rupestris 

 pallida from the Altai Mountains. Dr. Hartert, in epistola to me, writes : 

 " The two forms are quite distinct and there can be no doubt whatever about 

 them. C. r. pallida is generally lighter, especially on the abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts, and the middle of the abdomen is almost pure white, not slaty- 

 blue as in C. r. rupestris.^' Since then Zarudny has again divided a third 

 subspecies from south Russia, and Swinlioe long ago gave the Chinese form 

 the name of leucozonura. 



Nidification. There is very little on record about the nesting of the 

 Blue Hill-Pigeon ; Marshall mentions, in the Ibis for 1884, having found 

 them breeding in the high cliffs in the Panji Valley, Upper Pherab, but gives 

 no details of nests or eggs. Bailey likewise gives no description of these but 



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