26 COLUMBID^. 



Others of its tribe it feeds on berries, wild fruits or cherries, grass seeds and 

 corn of all kinds. The tiesh is delicious, but like all pigeons though unless 

 skinned or made up into stew or pie, roasted, it is dry, and there is scarcely 

 any flavour. Curried there is nothing better. These remarks apply to all the 

 following pigeons. 



34. Paliimbus Elphinstonei (Sykes), Jerd., B. Ind. ii. p. 465, 



No. 786; id., III. Iiiil. Orn. pi. 48; Gould, B. Asia pt. vi, pi. 12; Htime, 

 Str. F. vii. pp 95, 424. Palumbus torringtoni {Kelaart), Blyth, Ibis, 1867 ; 

 Hutne, Str. F. vii. p. 424. — The Neilghf.rry Wood Pigeon. 



Head and neck ashy ; nuchal patch black, with small 7vhile tips; back of 

 neck and interscapulars cupreous ruddy, slightly glossed with greenish ; rest of 

 upper surface of body ruddy brown, dark ashy on the rump and upper tail 

 coverts ; wings, including the quills, dusky black, narrowly edged with ruddy 

 cupreous ; outer primaries pale edged ; tail dull black ; under surface of the 

 body ashy, albescent on the throat ; neck and breast glossed with green ; vent 

 and lower abdomen albescent ; bill deep red, tipped with yellow ; legs and 

 feet dull red. 



Length.— \^ to 16 inches ; tail 5" 75 to 6 ; wing 8 to 8-25. 



Hah. — The Neilgherries, Ceylon, and the dense woods above the Khandalla 

 ghauts in the Deccan. Breeds from March to July, laying only a single ^gg. 

 Nests placed on high trees in dense woods. Egg spotless glossy white, oval, 

 1-46 X 1-2. 



Gen. Palumbaena.— ^i^. 



Bill straight, compressed, convex, bent at the tip ; base of upper mandible 

 covered with soft skin, more or less inflated, in which are the nostrils ; hind 

 toe on the same plane with the front ones ; wings ample ; 1st quill shorter 

 than the second, which is the longest. 



Feet fitted for walking, as well as for perching ; habits and colouring inter- 

 mediate to Valunihus and Columba. (Jerd.) 



35. Palumbaena Eversmanni, Bp., ic. Pig. t, 6i ; yerd., 



B. Ind. iii. p. 467, No. 787 ; Eume, Str. i^. i. p. 217 ; Murray, Hdbk., Zool., 

 Sfc, Sind, p. 193. — The Indian Stock Pigeon. 



Dark ashy, with a whitish grey rump ; crown and breast tinged with vina- 

 ceous, two or three black spots on the wings, forming the rudiments of bands, 

 and the end of the tail black ; its outermost feather white for the basal two- 

 thirds of its exterior web, or showing a black, and then a narrow grey band 

 towards its tip ; beneath the wings whitish, where it is dark ashy in the Euro- 



