378 COLUMBID^. 



forked branch at any height from 6 to 50 feet above the 

 ground. 



They lay two eggs. "Whether they breed during the cold season 

 when absent from the hills I cannot say. In the Himalayas, so 

 far as I have yet been able to ascertain, they have only one 

 brood. 



Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes :—" The Kokla breeds in 

 spruce-firs about Murree. The nest is usually about 20 feet up, 

 built by the trunk of the tree. It lays in June." 



Captain Hutton says : — " This species, which is the Kokla of 

 the natives, arrives in the neighbourhood of Mussoorie in the 

 beginning of April, and remains during the summer to breed. 



" The nest is composed of dry twigs, and the eggs, two in num- 

 ber, are usually pure white and more gracefully ovate than those 

 of Turtw risOT-Mfs, and measure aboutl*]2 by 0"82, The breeding- 

 season lasts from the end of April until the latter end of Jane, and 

 the nest is a slight platform usually placed on high forest-trees. 

 In October they collect into small flocks of six or eight and quit 

 the neighbourhood of Mussoorie." 



I'rom Kumaon Mr. R, Thompson remarks : — " Their nests are 

 composed of small dry twigs loosely laid in the forked branches of 

 a tree, not unusually at no great height from the ground. They lay 

 two pux*e white eggs. They breed from April to June, and are most 

 plentiful at heights varying from 4000 to 5000 feet. The fruit of 

 the Myrica sapinda, or kaiphal, which ripens about their breediog- 

 time, afliords food for vast numbers of these birds,"' 



Mr. Hodgson tells us that this species breeds in the central 

 region of Nepal from April to July, laying two pure white eggs, 

 one of \Ahich he figures as measuring 1*12 by 0'85. 



The eggs that I possess of this species, taken in the neighbour- 

 hood of Simla, Gurhwal, and Mussoorie, strongly resemble those of 

 Crocopus ; but they are, if anything, somewhat narrower and more 

 elongated ovals. They have also, perhaps, a trifle less gloss. 

 They are, of course, pure spotless \\hite. In length they vaiy 

 from 1-05 to 1'26, and in breadth from 0-8 to 0*95 ; but the average 

 of fourteen eggs is 1-18 by 0-89. 



