ASHY WOOD-PIGEON 173 



Adult female. Similar to the male. 



Colours of soft parts. The same as in the male. 



Measurements. There are, unfortunately, practically no sexed birds in 

 the British Museum Collection, and it is therefore impossible to say whether 

 the female is smaller than the male, though this is very probably the case. 

 Twice when I obtained pairs of tliis bird I found the female on each occasion 

 smaller and much slighter in build than its companion. 



Young male. Similar to the adult, but with practically no gloss, the 

 collar less developed and the general tone of the plumage more brown than 

 in the old bird. 



Distribution. This Pigeon is found in Nepal, Sikhim, and Tibet at 

 elevations between 7,000 and 10,000 ft., possibly descending a good deal 

 lower than this in winter. It occurs throughout the hills south of the Brahma- 

 pootra River from 4,000 ft. upwards ; Osmaston found it not uncommon 

 between 7,000 and 8,000 ft. near Darjiling, and Messrs. Thompson and 

 Craddock obtained a single specimen at Loi Maw in the Shan States at 

 7,200 ft. Harington also records it from the Shan States, but did not 

 apparently meet with it himself anywhere in Burma. The only other place 

 from which it has been recorded is Formosa. 



Nidification. There is nothing on record about the nidification of this 

 bird beyond Osmaston's and my oWn notes on the subject. In the Ibis for 

 1896. p. 155, 1 \vrote as follows : " Two nests of this Pigeon, taken at Hungrum, 

 about 5,000 ft. elevation, were of the ordinary Wood-Pigeon type, mere rough 

 platforms of small twigs coarsely, but strongly interlaced with one another ; 

 but they had one very distinctive and unexpected feature, namely a sparse 

 lining of feathers. The nests were rather large, nearly 9 in. in diameter ; 

 there was little or no depression for the eggs, these laying among the feathers 

 and prevented from falling out by some of the twigs projecting beyond 

 the others, and by the numerous interstices and small liollows in between 

 them, in which the eggs would have caught had they moved about. Each 

 nest contained a single egg, perfect ellipses in shape, rather coarse and stout 

 in texture, with a dull surface and measuring 1.55 in. by 1.15 in. and 1.50 in. 

 by 1.17 in. Both nests were found on the same date, 22nd June, 1891." 



These two nests were placed in the beautiful stunted-oak forest growing 

 between 5,000 and 6,000 ft. on the Barail Range, beautiful not so much because 

 of the picturesque oak-trees as on account of their beautiful surroundings 

 and the wonderful gro^-th under and around them. Each tree stood in a 

 growth of bracken, caladiums, jasmine, begonias, and maidenhair fern, and all 

 over the tree itself was a wondrous wealth of orchid-life, the orchids, many 

 of the greatest beauty, peeping out from amongst a mass of pendant green 

 moss which swayed to and fro in every breath of wind. 



On such a tree, and partly resting on a dense mass of Dendrobium 

 chrysotoxicum and Dendrobium dalhousianum, one pair of Pigeons had placed 

 their nest whilst the other pair were content to build on a small branch 

 about 15 ft. from the ground, unadorned by any orchids, but almost hidden 

 in a mass of vivid green moss and hart's-tongue fern. 



In 1897 and 1898 I again took nests of this Pigeon, both in the same 

 kind of forest and in the same month, and each containing a single egg. 

 The nests ^ere similar to those described above, and like them had 

 quite copious linings of feathers, most of which seemed to have belonged 

 to the birds themselves, though there were one or two barbet and other 

 feathers also. 



