34



Dr. E. Hopkinson,



business than they are. The bird arrives, settles on a tree—

preferably a dead one—near by, and surveys the surroundings. If

all seems well, down he comes to the water, hovers for a moment

only before alighting, and then settles and rapidly drinks his fill.

In half a minute at the outside he is satisfied and at once away.

There is no pottering about before approaching the water, taking

a peck here and a peck there, and then, when the water is a

last reached, taking a sip here and there and moving from place

to place as is the way with Ring-necked Doves. Another

interesting thing about their drinking habits is that they are

apparently quite satisfied with (if not actually fond of) brackish

water. They come down in the evening in many places to the

pools among the mangroves and certainly drink from such. At

one or two places this habit provides as good pigeon-shooting as

one wants. One place where it is particularly good is Ivafuta

Here the water in the creek is almost quite salt, rather more than

brackish, yet the “ Black Pigeons ” come in large numbers every

evening to drink there. The creek is fringed with tall mangroves,

and as the birds come over these, flying their very best, they give

great shooting. Another place which attracts numbers of “ Black

Pigeon is a line of slightly brackish lagoons among the coastal

sand-dunes near Tujureh, and I know of others; but these two are,

I think, far and away the best, and certainly the most certain

providers of sport.


Taken altogether, our Pigeons and Doves give quite good

shooting when one can get them properly flighting. The “ Black

Pigeon ” under these circumstances is probably the easiest of all to

hit, as his flight is nothing like as fast as that of the smaller

Ringneck Dove, and also he generally flies straight, whereas the

latter not only goes about twice the pace, but twists and turns if

alarmed or apprehensive. The fastest of all, however, is the

migrating Turtledove, which moves like a bullet and twists like a

Snipe, but these are only to be found in a few places and on a few

days in each year. They do not, like our resident species, provide

a regular supply either of sport or food. From the latter point of

view I like the Ring-necked Dove best, and then either the Green

or the “Black Pigeon,’’ bracketed equal. Sometimes I think one the



