34 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
with their feet, wounded birds often seizing a twig or branch and 
hanging on, head downwards, until they drop off dead, and sometimes 
even after death the feet retain their hold. They are not, however, 
quick in their movements about a tree, and are very parrot-like in 
their actions, especially as they clamber slowly down some hanging 
branch towards a tempting cluster of fruit or berries. 
They are, of course, entirely vegetarian in their diet, but not 
entirely frugivorous, for they will eat grain of all kinds, and also the 
tiny new buds of some kinds of trees and bushes. They are very 
partial to the fruit of the ber tree, and it is incredible the amount 
and weight of the berries they will cram into their crops, which 
get so distended and distorted that they look as if they must burst. 
Naturally, when a shot bird falls to the ground its crop does burst, 
and as the dense plumage also comes off very easily, birds when 
gathered often present a very dishevelled appearance. For this reason, 
also, it is very hard to obtain good specimens for the museum, and 
not one bird in three shot is any good for this purpose. 
Greediness appears not to have any ill effect on Green Pigeons, 
which are generally in excellent condition, often having regular layers 
of fat between the skin and the flesh. All Green Pigeons are very good 
for the table, but they should be skinned and not plucked only, for 
their skins are very tough and sometimes seem to give a rather rank 
taste to the flesh. The best way of all to cook them is to jug them in 
claret, and the next best to roast them in a ball of clay, which keeps 
in all the juices but takes away skin and feathers complete when the 
ball is opened. 
I have above noted that this little Green Pigeon is entirely 
vegetarian in its diet, but this is not quite correct, for, like almost 
every other bird and animal, it will greedily eat white ants. For this 
purpose it descends to the ground and runs about quite actively, seizing 
both those termites which drop to the ground on losing their wings 
and those which are just emerging from their nest-holes. 
It will also descend to the ground to eat strawberries or other 
fruit growing on ground-plants. 
This species sometimes assembles in very large flocks, and I think 
I have seen one or two which must have numbered over two hundred ; 
as a general rule, however, they will be found in flocks of anything 
from half a dozen to thirty or forty. Even during the breeding-season 
