NILGIRI WOOD-PIGEON 167 



Davison records of the Nilgiri Wood-Pigeon that it is not 

 uncommon in the woods and slopes of the Nilgherries, though he did not 

 meet with it either in the Wynnad or Mysore. He adds : "It moves 

 about a good deal, and a shola that may be full of them one week, will 

 not contain a single specimen of them the following week ; this is due, 

 I fancy, to the prevalence or otherwise of berries. I too have noticed 

 the fact mentioned by Jerdon of their feeding on the ground outside 

 the forests. I found them very numerous in March in the forests 

 about Meddivuttam, and procured a good number of specimens." 



It is said to be a shy, wary bird, and where it is much shot at it 

 soon becomes impossible to get near enough with a gun. 



The flight is much the same as that of the Eiu'opean Wood-Pigeon, 

 very powerful and fast, and they are also said to generally fly at a good 

 height when passing from one feeding-ground to another. 



During the cold weather they are nearly always found in flocks 

 — ^rarely singly or in pairs ; but all field-naturalists who have watched 

 these Pigeons agree that the flocks are invariably small, and a party 

 of a dozen birds seems quite exceptional. 



The only note I have concerning its call is one contained in a letter 

 fi'om a friend, in reply to a query, who stated that " it is on the whole 

 a very quiet bird, and I cannot distinguish its coo in any way from 

 that of its European cousin. Its soft, sweet notes may sometimes be 

 heard in the sholas very early in the morning, as the birds call to one 

 another before flighting to their feeding-grounds, and again in the 

 evenings, when the birds cany on a soft murmuring conversation 

 amongst themselves before settling off to sleep." 



