Birds of Gambia. 71 



rains largish flocks, travelling northward, appear in Bathurst about 

 a week after the arrival of the migrating Green Pigeons, but at 

 other times they are strictly resident birds. They are most regular 

 in their habits, in certain places one is practically sure of finding' 

 them at any particular hour, while morning and evening they go 

 to drink often in immense flocks at various favourite places, and 

 on these occasions one notices how quick they are, in comparison 

 with other Doves, in satisfying their thirst. The bird arrives, 

 settles on a tree near by and surveys the surroundings; if all is 

 quiet down he comes to the water, hovers for a moment before 

 alighting and then settles and drinks his fill. In half a minute 

 satisfied and away, there is no pottering about, taking a sip here and 

 a sip there or moving from pool to pool, as the smaller Doves 

 do. Another remarkable thing about their drinking habits is that 

 they are apparently quite satisfied with (if not actually fond of) 

 brackish water. At Kafuta there is a large Mangrove -fringed 

 creek, where the water is quite brackish, to drink which the Black 

 Pigeons come in large numbers every evening and give great 

 sport with the gun as they come, flying their very best, over the 

 tops of the Mangroves. I have noticed the same at other places 

 near the mouth of the river where similar conditions prevail. 

 They make the usual pigeon's nest, a slight structure of sticks, 

 in small trees and lay two white eggs. Occasionally too the nest 

 is placed (in districts where a particular kind of Dwarf Palm 

 grows) in the cleft, where the leaf -stalk branches off from the 

 trunk of one of these Palms about 8 or 10 feet from the ground; 

 in such a position the eggs are merely laid in the cleft without 

 any attempt at a nest at all. Their note may be very exactly 

 rendered by the syllables, "Too-too: tutta-tut-too," and they also 

 have a throaty chuckling call. The Mandingo boys translate the 

 note into their language as " Lung-o-lung futa kiti {repeated twice), 

 Talata nongkong temfe," (in English, "Every day the court is 

 sitting, every Tuesday, bang goes sixpence." This, they say is thp 

 cock scolding his wife for her extravagance, which is continually 

 bringing him to the court. Native names are " Bita-fin " (Mandingo) 

 and " Peget " (Joloff). Their flesh is excellent eating, lespeci- 

 ally in the groundnut season. We, who live in the Protectorate here, 

 are certainly pretty good evidence against the old saying that it 

 is impossible for a man to eat a pigeon every day for a month. 

 With most of us very few days pass without our eating Pigeon in 

 some form or other, and very good " chop " most of them make 

 too. I like the small Ringneck Dove the best, and next the Black 

 and the Green Pigeons (bracketed equal), but opinions differ as 

 to their relative excellence, though all are agreed as to their goodness. 

 Description. Crown and head blue-grey; a half collar of 

 black on neck; back dark grey; wing-coverts slaty, darker externally, 

 quills dark brown with narrow pale edges; tail dark grey, almost 

 black, all the feathers, except the two central ones, tipped with bluish 



