14 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
rights and lefts, and all the birds killed fell, I believe, upon the embank- 
ment itself. My own shooting, alas, was rewarded by many splashes 
in the water behind and by one or two in front, but fall on land these 
contrary Pigeons would not, and at the end of the afternoon’s shoot I 
had gathered five birds to my companion’s thirty or forty. The plumage 
of all Pigeons, especially perhaps of Green Pigeons, is very dense and 
close in proportion to their size, and they take a lot of hitting to bring 
them down clean; more particularly so when the shooter is forced to 
fire at them coming towards him. The size of shot generally used 
is No. 7, but many use No. 6 and a few No. 5. This latter is, however, 
too large, and does not give as good an average as Nos. 6 or 7. Person- 
ally I always used the latter, and found this shot, with a full charge 
of one’s favourite powder, whatever that may be, and a choke or semi- 
choke 16-bore, gave the best all-round results. 
The Bengal Green Pigeon does not, as a rule, collect in very large 
flocks—some eight to a dozen birds form the majority of flocks— 
but others of twenty or even thirty may occasionally be met with. 
In their favourite feeding-haunts when the fig trees are in fruit, several 
flocks often collect on the same tree, and in such circumstances 
I should think I have seen sixty birds on one tree. These, however, 
though at the first alarm they all go off together, soon split up into 
their component parts. Sometimes single birds or pairs may be met 
with in the non-breeding season, but they are very sociable, and 
where this particular species is rare, I have often seen it associating 
with other Green Pigeons and keeping with them as they moved from 
one spot to another. In spite of their fondness for society they are, 
all the same, very quarrelsome birds—a characteristic, it is to be feared, 
“es 
of nearly all the “ gentle’ dove tribe. They are not so bad, however, 
in this respect as the true Pigeons, and can be kept in some numbers 
together in a cage, provided it is large enough. I had five or six pairs 
once in quite a small aviary, about 6 ft. by 8 and about 6 ft. high, 
and here they lived quite amicably, seldom fighting except over what 
they conceived to be the finest nesting-places. 
Pigeons are greedy drinkers, drinking as everyone knows by 
burying their bills in the water and taking long draughts without 
withdrawing them. ‘The hill-tribes firmly believe that Green Pigeons 
never come on to the ground to drink, but climb down creepers hanging 
over the water, or down reeds growing in it, until they are close enough 
