30 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
found in the greatest numbers in the foot-hills up to 1,500 or 2,000 ft., 
and thence some way into the more level country adjoining them. In 
the plains of Dibrugarh, where we have a flora and fauna more like 
that found elsewhere at an elevation of about 1,000 ft. and upwards, 
this Pigeon swarms and certainly forms at least two-thirds of the 
Green Pigeons which annually fall to the guns of the local sportsmen. 
Twice I have seen bags of over four hundred Pigeons made in one 
day, and in each case considerably over two-thirds of the birds 
obtained were of this species. Bingham also records that he “ found 
this the commonest Green Pigeon on Thaungyeen and the higher 
parts of the Houndraw River.” 
They are quite first-class little game-birds in every way. Their 
flight, like that of all Green Pigeons, is wonderfully swift, and they 
have a most disconcerting habit of coming straight at you over the 
tree-tops and then swooping down within a few feet of the ground 
as they approach, only to rise again with equal rapidity just as one 
is about to fire, and then with a few rapid twists and turns disappear 
behind you, leaving you with two empty cartridges and an equally 
empty bag. 
As with their larger cousins, the Bengal Green Pigeon and its 
subspecies, the easiest way to shoot them is to get close to some tree 
or trees upon which they are feeding, and take them as they come 
towards you. By this means one meets them as they are slowing 
down somewhat, and their flight is generally fairly direct; but even 
under these circumstances, a very few shots put them on the qui vive, 
and every flock that comes, after one or two birds have been dropped, 
flies higher and faster than its predecessor, and often after whirling 
round once or twice in wide circles, departs the way it has come 
without offering a possible shot. 
The most sporting way of shooting them is undoubtedly that 
practised by the tea-planters of the Panitola and many other tea- 
districts in Assam. The breeding-season over, the birds collect in 
very large flocks, and towards the end of July and August frequent 
certain feeding-grounds in the forests round the tea-gardens. Here 
and there these forests are traversed by roads, and elsewhere are small 
patches of cultivation or open spaces beside some stream or forest- 
pool, and it is in such places the guns are placed when a shoot has 
been decided upon. 
