PURPLE WOOD-PIGEON 179 



plentiful. Bingham also found them by no means rare in the Sinzaway 

 Forest Reserve, in Tenasserim, but everywhere else, though widely 

 distributed, it is only to be foimd in very small numbers. 



I have never seen this Pigeon in flocks, nor have the numerous 

 observers and collectors who have worked for me ever seen them except 

 singly or in pairs, or perhaps a pair of old birds accompanied by their 

 young one on its first leaving the nest. Colonel Tickell, however, the 

 discoverer of the bird, fomid them in small parties of four or five along 

 the banks of rivers shaded by large forest-trees in Singhbhum. 



This fine Wood-Pigeon has hitherto been considered to be entirely 

 frugivorous, but this is by no means the case, as it eats grain of almost 

 any kind quite as freely as fruit. When the rice has been harvested and 

 the fields have all dried up, this bird is a regular visitor to those fields 

 which border or intersect the forest-lands, and may be met with in the 

 very early mornings or late afternoons walking about in the stubble 

 picking up the rice which has been left behind. So also, the Sylhetees 

 inform me, it frequents the fields of Indian com and " Bajra," a species 

 of millet, eating both these kinds of grain from the crop itself as it 

 ripens or from the gleanings after the crop has been reaped. 



I do not think it is ever found feeding very far from forest, but 

 it will traverse considerable extents of open country in order to get 

 from one feeding-place to another, and I have had several reports sent 

 me of birds killed in wide open plains whilst thus crossing it from one 

 forest to another. It is a strong, swift flier, very direct in its move- 

 ments and proceeding with the typical, rather dehberate wing-beats 

 of the Common Wood-Pigeon. On the ground it is a decidedly active 

 bird, moving about well and freely with action similar to, but less 

 clumsy than, that of oin? European bird. 



I have never heard the call of this Pigeon, but Bingham describes 

 it as " a soft mew, not unlike that of Carpophaga aenea, only not half 

 so loud or booming." 



The plumage of the Pvurple Wood-Pigeon is just as thick as that of 

 the other species of the genus, whilst it seems to be also closer together 

 and better attached to the skin, so that it offers an even greater resistance 

 to shot than the others do, and it is consequently a very difficult bird 

 to bring down at long range. On the other hand, when falling from 

 a height it does not get so dreadfully knocked to pieces as do most 

 Pigeons, and, consequently, good skms are more easily obtained, or 

 rather, more frequently in proportion to the number of birds killed. 



N 2 



