SPECKLED WOOD-PIGEON 157 



to 152.4 mm.) : tarsus under 1 in. (25.0 mm.) ; bill at front .6 in. to .7 in. 

 ( = 15.2 to 17.7 mm.) and from gape about 1 in. (25.4 mm.). 



Adult female. In the female the whole of the grey is tinged with brown, 

 and there is no pink on the grey margins to the feathers of the breast and 

 abdomen. The claret, or maroon-red, on tlie upper-parts of the male is 

 replaced with dark brown, in some individuals more or less suffused with 

 slaty-grey. The red of the under-parts is replaced by dark grey-brown, but a 

 few specimens, probably very old females, show a slight tint of claret-colour 

 in small patches on the flanks and abdomen. 



Colours of soft parts. As in the male, but the iris is often a brownish- 

 white. 



Measurements. The female is a slightly smaller bird than the male 

 with a wing between 8.5 in. ( = 215.9 mm.) and 9.0 in. ( = 228.6 mm.), and 

 the other dimensions in proportion. 



Young male. Like the female, but the smaller wing-coverts all edged 

 with rufous-brown and with practically no white spotting. The under-surface 

 of the body is also more or less barred with grey and rufous, and the abdomen 

 is nearly entirely of this latter colour. 



Distribution. From the extreme west of Kashmir, where however 

 it is not common, throughout Nepal, Sikhim, Tibet, the hill-ranges north 

 and south of the Brahmapootra, Manipur and the Looshai Hills into the 

 Chin Hills and Shan States in northern Burma. 



Nidification. The only note hitherto recorded about these Pigeons' 

 breeding is contained in Captain Irby's remarks in the Ihis for 1861, where 

 he notes that " some nested in inaccessible cliffs, near Monsheyaree, about 

 seventy miles from Almorah." In this Captain Irby was probably mistaken, 

 as I have taken their nests myself in trees, and Mr. H. Stevens, though he 

 failed to actually take their nests, shot birds which were breeding in the 

 well-forested parts of Nepal and not in the higher rocky parts above 

 the forest. 



The only two nests taken by myself were both found in a lofty hill-range, 

 running to over 6,000 ft., an offshoot of the Barail Range in north Cachar. 

 Here in winter tliis Pigeon was not very uncommon, but it must have been 

 quite exceptional for it to stay and breed as for many years I failed to obtain 

 a nest, or indeed to find the bird after April, nor did I ever again meet with it 

 breeding after this one year. 



Both nests were of the usual type of Wood-Pigeon's nest, a rough platform 

 of twigs, green and dry, inter^voven with one another, with but little depression 

 for the eggs, and no lining of any kind. Both were placed in small stunted 

 oaks, which here were almost the only kind of tree to be met with, and were 

 built on horizontal boughs some 15 to 20 ft. from the ground. In one case 

 the nest half -rested on a clump of that sweet-scented white orchid, 

 Celogyne odorissima, and in tlie other case, half on the bough and half on 

 a cluster of twigs. 



Each nest contained a single fresh egg and the dates on which they were 

 found were on the 28th May and 1st June, 1896. 



Last year, 1912, I was fortunate enough to obtain six of these eggs from 

 Nepal, all taken at elevations between eight and ten thousand feet and on 

 dates between the 22nd May and the 18th June ; each nest contained but a 

 single egg, and it would therefore appear as if this was the normal number 

 laid, and not two as laid by most Wood-Pigeons. All the nests were said to 



