EASTERN STOCK-PIGEON 151 



pepul trees. To Europeans here (in Hansi) they are known as the 

 Hill-Pigeons. They are probably migratory in India, breeding in Central 

 Asia. Buchanan Hamilton, however, states that a wild Blue-Pigeon 

 breeds in Goruckpore in plantations, and is a great consumer of grain. He 

 however considered it the ' same as one that breeds on rocks on the banks 

 of the Jumna and other places,' i.e. the Common Blue Rock-Pigeon." 



They are grain, seed, berry and fruit-eaters, under normal circum- 

 stances Uving principally on the latter and various seeds and nuts of 

 trees, but greedily attacking ripe and ripening crops when in the 

 vicinity of civilization. Whitehead found them when in Kohat in the 

 latter half of April feeding principally on the mulberries which were 

 ripening. He also states that he foimd them less wary than other 

 members of the same family. In the Kurram Valley he found it 

 scarce, and only parsing through on migration. A specimen shot by him 

 on the 2nd of May, at an elevation of 6,500 ft., was killed in Ilex-scrub. 



Reid fomid that they roosted during the heat of the day, and also 

 at night, in the mango groves, and if they were not molested would 

 keep to the same grove for days and even weeks together. 



Major J. Lindsay-Smith informs me that he has noticed that the 

 bird has a curious predilection for roosting near water. At LyaUpur, 

 during the cold weather, he found them roosting in very great num- 

 bers — often himdreds — in the dead trees by the two great canal reservoirs, 

 the Rodo-koru and the Sonari. Here, where the overflow water periodically 

 escapes from the canal over a considerable area, the trees stand, withered 

 skeletons, in a waste of water some four feet deep, and Major Lindsay 

 Smith informs me that he has seen some of these trees black with the 

 birds roosting on them. At and about Mooltan he also noticed that 

 the birds always seemed to select trees along the banks of the Chenab 

 for roosting purposes, both by night and during the heat of the day. 



The number in which these birds collect in these roosting-trees 

 may be imagined when one shot is capable of bringing down fourteen 

 birds, an experience which happened to a Mr. E. P. Ussher, when shooting 

 on the banks of the same Chenab above referred to. 



Mr. Ussher informs me that he foimd them very confiding birds 

 on their first arrival into the country, but they soon became very wary 

 and wild after they had been shot at for a day or two. 



In flight and voice they resemble exactly the eastern Stock-Dove, 

 and for the table they are equally good. 



