BENGAL GREEN PIGEON 11 
completely screened the one from the others by magnificent specimens 
of pepul (Ficus religiosa) and the banyan. Here and there were little 
patches of cultivation, and down below in the valley was a waving 
sea of young rice, the tender pale green glinting and swaying in the 
sunlight, when the breeze played on its surface as on water. 
After a long morning’s shooting we were lounging about in the 
shade of a clump of mango trees, just finishing a well-earned lunch, 
when I heard the most beautiful soft whistling coming from some 
pepul trees near by. Asking my older companions what the musical 
bird was, I was told, to my astonishment, that they were Green Pigeons. 
Jumping up, I at once went to the trees whence the sound proceeded, 
and for some minutes listened in silence : it was like that of a school- 
boy whistling under his breath a succession of soft mellow calls, with 
no tune, yet full of melody. The sounds rose and fell, now high, 
now low, yet ever soft and sweet, and so ventriloquistic that I found 
it impossible to locate the singer. At last a movement amongst the 
leaves showed me where the bird was sitting, but so perfectly did its 
green and yellow plumage harmonize with its surroundings, that once 
my eyes were withdrawn and the bird quiescent, it was with the greatest 
difficulty I could again discover it. When I did find it I fired and 
brought down, not only the bird I aimed at, but two others of whose 
presence in that spot I was quite unaware. Frightened by the report, 
some ten or twelve others flew from the tree, but a shot fired after them 
only hastened their movements. My admiration for the beauty of 
their plumage was no greater than my respect for their wonderful 
flight, and though I was then a fair shot at snipe, jungle and spur-fowl, 
etc., it was some time before I could realize the speed of this bird, and 
induce myself to shoot forward enough. Their flight is marvellously 
quick, and they go at a great pace from the start, in addition to which 
the way a flock of these birds alter their elevation as they fly is very 
disconcerting to a beginner. 
Over the greater portion of their range, Green Pigeons are hardly 
considered game-birds, and sportsmen seldom take the trouble to 
actually work them up and obtain bags of Pigeons alone. In Bengal 
Burma, and the Assam Valley, however, Green Pigeon rank very high 
as game-birds, and much trouble is taken in the proper organization 
and arrangements for shoots, at which these birds alone form the 
objects of the sport. Full worthy, too, are they of the trouble spent 
