ORANGE-BREASTED GREEN PIGEON 53 
his wife with occasional dainties, and cheering her with his whistling when 
she is sitting. 
Incubation takes, I think, twelve or fourteen days ; but I have never made 
quite sure of this, and it may be a day more or less according to the weather, 
which affects incubation to a great extent. 
The eggs are, of course, the same soft smooth white like those of the rest 
of the family, and the average size of 100 eggs is 1.1 in. ( = 27.9 mm.) by .89 
( = 22.6 mm.). 
This beautiful Green Pigeon is extremely abundant throughout 
the Province of Assam, alike in the plains and in the hills up to about 
2,500 ft., thence becoming more scarce up to about 4,000 ft., above 
which it is rare. It does however sometimes occur up to at least 6,000 ft. 
for I have shot one of a pair seen at the Peak, near Shillong in the Khasia 
Hills, in heavy rhododendron and oak forest, and have occasionally also 
seen it in the highest ranges to the east of the North Cachar Hills 
round and about Hungrum. 
It is principally a bird of forest-country and prefers above all the 
vast stretches of forest-land running along the foot of the Himalayas, 
and for some few miles into the adjoining plains, especially frequenting 
such places as are broken up by a certain amount of cultivation and 
scattered villages. At the same time, wherever there are trees bearing 
fruit for them to eat, these birds will also be found, except in the most 
open of plains, and occasionally they may be met with even in clumps 
of fruit-trees and village orchards—or topes, as they are called—far 
from any forest. 
Around villages and in the more open parts of their habitat they 
will be found resorting to their feeding-places from daybreak until 
8 or 10 a.m., and again in the cool of the evening ; but in forest-country 
and about villages standing in heavily wooded tracts they will feed 
more or less throughout the day, except for two to four hours of the 
hottest time, when they retire to the densest foliaged forest-trees 
for their siesta. In Gunjong, North Cachar Hills, these birds came 
into my garden more frequently than any other Green Pigeon, and 
used to feed greedily on a kind of fig of which there were two or three 
trees bearing fruit nearly all the year round. They were also very 
partial to the guava-fruit which, when ripe and soft, they tore to pieces 
with their bills, swallowing huge bits as big, if not bigger, than their 
own heads. A more objectionable habit they had was that of getting 
into the orange-groves and pulling off the tiny oranges when about 
the size of small marbles. I don’t think they ate many of these, for 
