166 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



egg she lays. (I say egg, for I have seen four nests of the NiJgiri Wood- 

 Pigeon ; two had one egg in each, and the other two contained one young 

 one in each). I have also remarked that only one Pigeon is noticed near 

 the nests." 



Other observers agree with Miss Cockburn in her description of the nest 

 and the number of eggs laid, but all disagree with her description of the site, 

 and doubtless her nests were somewhat abnormal in this respect, as these 

 Wood-Pigeons generally make their nests either in tall, thickly-foUaged bushes 

 or in small saplings more often under than over 15 ft. from the ground. 



Hume would appear to have received a fair number of their eggs from 

 different collectors, but in the British Museum Collection there are only three 

 of them left. They are, of course, pure white as usual, and are fairly glossy, 

 but the texture is not so fine and close as in some Pigeons' eggs. In shape 

 they are rather broad ovals, practically the same at either end. 



The Museum eggs, my own, and three others I have been enabled to 

 measure vary between 1.42 in. ( = 36 mm.) and 1.53 in. ( = 38.8 mm.) in length, 

 and between 1.05 in. ( = 26.6 mm.) and 1.18 in. ( = 30 mm.) in breadth. 



The breeding-season appears to commence in March, as Miss Cockburn 

 took her nests with young in April, and Mr. Morgan reports finding nests in 

 that month also. Cardew, Howard Campbell and Captain Terry took their 

 eggs in May, and on the other hand Davison did not take its eggs until June. 



All writers agree that they only make their nests in the interior of very- 

 thick forests and are consequently difficult to find, nor does the parent 

 bird seem to render any assistance in disclosing the place in which its nest 

 is located. 



This species is essentially a Wood-Pigeon in its habits. Jerdon 

 says that " on the Nilgherries, it frequents sholas or dense woods, singly, 

 or in small parties of five or six, feeding on various fruits and buds, 

 and occasionally on small snails, to procvu-e which it descends to the 

 mossy banks, and I have now and then seen it on the groiuid outside 

 a wood. I frequently found some small Bulimi in the crops of those 

 I examined. Colonel Sykes says it is a rare bird in the Deccan, and 

 only foimd in the dense woods of the Ghats." 



It has been stated that the genus Alsocomus differs from Palumbu-s, 

 the true Wood-Pigeon, in that it is more frugivorous, but as a matter of 

 fact even the European Wood-Pigeon is very fond of fruit ; admittedly 

 its food in the main consists of beech-mast, acorns and grain, but it will 

 on the other hand greedily eat almost any soft fruit it can get at. 



In London, where the Wood-Pigeon is now very common, it enters 

 gardens freely and any gooseberry or currant bush which is not 

 carefully netted is soon stripped of all the ripe fruit, the unripe being 

 left by this discriminating bird for a future meal. I have also seen them 

 feeding on crab-apples, cherries, and plums, swallowing the latter whole 

 when possible, and when not possible tearing them to pieces, their 

 apparently fragile bills being amply strong enough for this purpose. 



