BENGAL GREEN PIGEON 15 
over to bend down and drink. It is not correct, however, to say that 
they never descend to the ground to drink, as I have myself seen them 
thus drinking, and have shot them as they rose. At the same time 
I have also often seen them drinking by climbing down overhanging 
canes and bushes until they were near enough to reach the water, and 
this latter manner of drinking is, perhaps, that most often resorted to. 
An interesting experiment with my cage-birds seemed to prove that 
the birds preferred drinking thus, and did not do so merely because 
there was no bare ground near to the water convenient to drink from. 
The birds referred to were supplied with wide shallow pans from which 
to drink, and when split bamboos, with one end resting in the water 
and the other slanting up to the perches, were placed in the aviary, 
it was found that more birds crept down the bamboos to drink than 
came right down on to the ground for this purpose. 
The belief of the hill-tribes in north-eastern India, which has been 
above referred to, is curiously supplemented by Cripp’s note in the 
seventh volume of Stray Feathers, where he writes that the natives of 
Furredpore in eastern Bengal “say that whenever this bird descends 
to the water’s edge for a drink it holds a twig in its claws; it prides 
itself on living altogether on trees, and in order that it may not be 
accused of perching on the ground when it descends to drink, brings 
down with it a twig to stand on.” 
They are greatly prized as cage-birds in India, being regularly 
exposed for sale in the Chiretta Bazaar in Calcutta; but though they 
whistle freely in captivity, and are not difficult to keep, they soon get 
rather dishevelled in appearance, especially when, as is generally the 
case, they are confined in bamboo cages so small that their tails 
constantly rub against the bars, and get very frayed and dirty. 
Captive birds are fed principally on plantains and suttoo, a mixture 
of meal and water, but a native bird-fancier told me that he had 
to vary this diet with dry grain and boiled rice, and also that he gave 
his birds practically any fruit which happened to be in season. Of 
fruit, however, the favourite seemed to be the jamans—a kind of wild 
plum—the fruit of the ber tree, and any kind of fig, such as pepul, 
banyan, etc. 
I never heard of anyone succeeding in getting them to breed in 
an aviary, or even to nest, though, as in my own case, they always 
grew very quarrelsome in the breeding-season, and would often spend 
