26



Dr. E. Hopkinson,



very closely, and never seems disturbed by the people who are con¬

stantly passing beneath her, Instinct has no doubt taught genera¬

tions of Green Pigeons that in a tree immobility is their surest

safeguard. When the young bird is hatched it maintains its hold on

the nest, which it so quickly and so continually outgrows, by automati¬

cally gripping with its feet one of the leaf-twigs to which the nest is

fixed. This clutch is quite a passive but very powerful one, and this

habit of holding tight to the perch persists in young birds for long

after they have left the nest. When a young one is shot in a tree it

nearly always remains hung up by the feet for some time, though

quite dead and the grip entirely due to muscular contraction. With

old birds one may at times hang for a moment or two; with young

a much longer lodgment is the rule.


Green Pigeons are essentially arboreal in their habits, and

haunt the higher branches of big trees, though they may he tempted

to the lower ones by ripe fruit when that on the upper branches is

finished. The natives say they never come to the ground even to

drink, and I have never seen one there unless wounded or dead.

Their food consists almost entirely of the fruit of different trees of

the “ bush ”—notably “ tabus ” and “ sotos,” two kinds of wild fig.

In one of these when in fruit one is nearly always sure of finding a

party of Green Pigeons feeding. A harvest-time ripening “ basso ”

is eaten as an addition to the ordinary fruit diet. This “ basso ” is

the largest of the native millets, and is much the same as what at

home we know as “ dharri.” In November, just before complete

ripening, this grain is soft and succulent, and is then greedily eaten

by such birds as Glossy Starlings and the like. At this season one

frequently shoots Green Pigeons with their crops absolutely overflow¬

ing with the soft, juicy grains of this corn ; at other times one never

finds anything in their crops or stomachs hut the seeds and debris of

bush-fruits.


Adult birds are rather shy and wary, but give quite pretty

shooting if one gets them coming over, as often happens if large

numbers of them are about and several trees are ripe. If one waits

near such a tree and fires just as a party slows down to alight, they

offer easy shots; but flying free, their flight, though straight, is

deceptive as to speed, and wants more swing than one would think.



