162 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



European Wood-Pigeon, but average a trifle smaller. Gates, in Hume's Nests 

 and Eggs, says that they vary in length between 1.53 in. and 1.65 in., and in 

 breadth from 1.06 in. to 1.2 in. 



There seems to be nothing in this bird's habits calling for special 

 remark, these being exactly the same as those of its European relation. 



It collects in very large flocks during the autumn, as soon ais the 

 breeding-season is over. Whitehead, writing of Kohat and the Kurrum 

 Valley, says that in the autumn he found them in large flocks " in the 

 scrub jungle above Marai, about Shinauri and in the wooded nullahs 

 of the northern slopes of the Samana." It is however, on the whole, 

 a bird of well-wooded country, and it is probably exceptional for it 

 to frequent scrub-jungle except at intervals when food is plentiful 

 in such. 



It is quite active on the ground, though generally rather slow and 

 deliberate in its movements. It feeds on grain, berries, shoots of trees, 

 acorns, etc., and takes these as found, high up in a tree or on the ground 

 itself. Its note is the same deep, soft " coo " as that of its European 

 congener. 



Like the latter bird, also, it is not difiicult to domesticate. Barnes 

 remarked of a bird in his possession which he obtained in Chaman : 

 " One that I have reared from the nest, and which I have brought with 

 me to India, is wonderfully tame, answers when called, is fond of 

 perching on my shoulders, and never attempts to fly away, although 

 as usual I aUow it fuU liberty." 



