52 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
to the huge banyan tree which forms one of the well-known sights of the 
gardens, and there we saw a male bird “ bowing and scraping ”’ to his little 
mate: so evidently the spread of buildings for miles in all directions round 
these gardens has not yet driven it away. 
The actions of the male Orange-breasted Green Pigeon when courting, 
are those of the genus generally. The bird puffs out its feathers and waddles 
up and down a bough, to and from the female, solemnly bobbing its head 
at regular intervals all the time—sometimes whistling its beautiful notes, 
sometimes croaking and crooning in an undertone which it considers even more 
seductive and musical. The female is content, as a rule, to feed whilst her 
consort shows off, but she, too, will now and then indulge in a clumsy 
step-dance, and bow and whistle in response to her mate’s protestations 
of love. 
Over most of its habitat this Green Pigeon is an early breeder: Oates 
found it breeding in Pegu from March to May; from the Malay States I have 
received eggs laid in January, February, and March; in Lower Burma 
it appears to breed principally in February and March; Irwin took eggs 
in Hill Tipperah in April, and Hodgson records its breeding-season in Nepal 
as being from April to June; in Dacca I found it breeding in March, and 
throughout the plains districts of Bengal. I think March and April are the 
principal breeding-months, but in the hill-ranges the favourite breeding- 
season is from early April to late May. It must, however, be remembered 
that all Green Pigeons are very irregular in their breeding-time, and doubtless 
many have two broods, for though I have often taken eggs of this species 
in early March, I have equally often taken fresh eggs in late August. 
The nest is a typical Green Pigeon’s nest, but is even more flimsy than most. 
Writing long ago in the Bombay Natural History Journal about this bird, I 
recorded: ‘‘The nest of this species seems to be about the most primitive 
of all Pigeons’ nests. I have seen some which it would appear ridiculous 
to suppose capable of holding a young brood, and how they do succeed in 
so doing I cannot understand. I took one nest in 1893, in which I do not 
think there were more than about a score of twigs used, and gaps showed 
through the nest fully half an inch in diameter, only just small enough not 
to allow of the eggs falling through.” 
They do not seem at all particular where they make their nests, but 
generally select a site either inside fairly thick jungle or forest of some 
kind, or else just on the outskirts of it. It is quite exceptional for the nest 
to be placed in an isolated tree or clump of trees, though it may now and then 
be taken in the large mango-orchards in Bengal, especially if these have been 
somewhat neglected, and have a good deal of undergrowth in them. 
I have seen these nests placed well up in big trees twenty, twenty-five, 
and even thirty feet from the ground. Others have been placed in small 
saplings, thick high bushes, and in bamboo-clumps hardly beyond the reach 
of a tall man ; whilst yet a few others have been built in cane-brakes in swamps, 
in bushes and dwarf bamboos not four feet above the land or the water of 
the swamps in which the cane-brakes grow. 
The nest takes but very few days to construct, both birds joining in the 
work, the male doing most of the carrying of the twigs and the female placing 
them in position. They work for a few hours only morning and evening, 
and during the rest of the day feed and doze. The nest made, the two eggs 
are generally laid with an interval of one day between, but sometimes, on 
consecutive days; and from this time onwards the male bird accepts all 
the responsibilities of his position, taking half the duties of incubation, feeding 
