12 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
upon them, for no greater variety of shots is obtainable ; no quicker 
shooting or straighter powder is required, than for the successful 
shooting and gathering of a big bag of these birds. 
The Bengal Green Pigeon, the largest of these lovely birds, is 
in Assam greatly outnumbered by some of its smaller cousins. Once, 
however, I shot over thirty couple of Green Pigeon, of which all but 
two were of the present species, and on another occasion Mr. C. Lawes 
and I shot twenty-one couple in less than an hour one evening, after 
returning from a long day’s buffalo-shooting in north Lahkimpur. 
On this occasion we were riding home on our elephants, when 
we saw two or three flights of Green Pigeon making for some trees 
close to the path we were following. As we were near home we decided 
to get off and shoot one or two for the pot; so down we got and took 
up our stands some hundred yards or so distant from, and on either 
side of, the trees which formed the attraction. Within a few minutes 
we were both hard at work, and in about half an hour, when cartridges 
gave out, we had each twenty-one birds to our credit. 
The shooting was very pretty, and nearly every shot seemed 
different from the rest. First a few birds would suddenly sweep up into 
sight, flying low over a belt of bushes in front of us, and going as if 
the next second would bring them into us; then, at the last moment, 
with a turn and a twist, they would rise higher into the air and flash 
by at the rate of sixty miles an hour. The next flock, perhaps, 
would come into sight far away, and give the impression that they 
were going to offer easy shots directly overhead, but before coming 
into range they would suddenly dip in their flight and scurry past us, 
a few feet from the ground. Then a single bird, or a pair of them, 
would give a glimpse of themselves as they slipped past between the 
bigger trees, instead of following the other birds into the more open 
ground ; others, yet again, would come high overhead, but straight 
on, and offer the most satisfactory rights and lefts possible. Some- 
times a bird would flash past from behind us, and skim out of sight 
before we realized that it had come; but, as a rule, all the birds came 
from the same direction. My bag of thirty odd couple of Bengal 
Green Pigeons was made in the same place as these twenty-one couple, 
but the birds were not quite so numerous, and my shooting lasted from 
about 4 p.m., when the birds began to come, until sudden dusk made 
it too dark to see, and the last few birds came and went in peace. 
