68 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
Distribution. The Thick-billed Green Pigeon is found throughout the 
Himalayas from Nepal in the west, through Sikhim, in all the hill-ranges 
north and south of the Brahmapootra River, the better wooded parts of 
eastern Bengal, throughout Burma, the Chin Hills, Shan States into the 
extreme south of Tenasserim, Annam, Siam, and Cochin China into the 
north of the Malay States. In the south of the Malay States, Borneo, 
Sumatra, and the Phillipines it is replaced by the true curvirostra. 
The earliest notice of this form of Green Pigeon is the plate in 
Latham’s Synopsis of Birds, a figure which agrees quite well with the 
Sumatran Thick-billed—or, as he calls it, Hook-billed—Pigeon, except that 
it does not show the grey of the head. On this plate was founded the 
description of Columba curvirostra in Gmelin (Systema Naturae, I p. 777) 
in which again the grey of the head is not mentioned. There cannot, I 
consider, be the slightest doubt that the present bird is the one depicted by 
Latham and described by Gmelin, and the specific name for the Thick-billed 
Pigeon must therefore be Teron curvirostra. Our Indian form, however, 
is quite easily distinguished from the Sumatran bird, the latter being 
separable at a glance by its generally darker hue both above and _ below. 
In addition to this the grey of the crown is distinctly darker and more dull, 
and often considerably restricted in area; the upper-plumage is of a duller 
darker green, and the under-parts, instead of being a comparatively bright 
greenish-yellow, are a dull oily yellow-green. 
In size the southern bird is also very much smaller, the wing running 
from 4.90 in. ( = 124.4 mm.) to 5.12 ( = 130.0 mm.). 
Nidification. Wherever found the Thick-billed Pigeon is resident 
and breeds, and in Cachar and the Khasia Hills I have taken great numbers 
of their nests. They commence breeding very early and some few eggs 
may be taken in the end of March, but April is the month in which most may 
be taken, and they continue to lay throughout May and June, whilst in July 
and August there is a fresh increase in the numbers breeding, so that it is 
probable that most birds have two broods in the year. 
I do not think either nest or eggs can be distinguished from those of 
Osmotreron phayrii, and like that bird the Thick-billed Pigeon is a very speedy 
builder. A nest built in an orange-grove outside my house took only four 
days to build, though for some few days previously the pair of birds were 
constantly placing a few twigs in position, either in the same tree as that in 
which they eventually built, or in one of the other orange-trees in the same 
grove. 
Incubation, I believe, took fourteen days, but I cannot be sure as I was 
afraid of disturbing the birds by too close inspection. They were not timid, 
and did not mind my moving about in the orchard, although the nest with 
the sitting bird on it was quite visible from one or two points of view. 
When nesting in the jungle they place their nests either in a sapling, 
quite unconcealed, in a high bush or in a bamboo-clump, and very often two 
or three nests are placed in close vicinity to one another. The male bird 
takes at least an equal share in the duties of incubation, and also helps in 
the building of the nest and the care of the young. 
The eggs are, as usual, two in number, pure white with a fine close grain, 
very smooth, but not highly glossed. The average of 100 eggs is 1.10 in. by 
.82 ( = 27.9 by 20.8. mm.), and the greatest length and breadth is 1.15 in. by 
.86 ( = 29.1 and 21.8 mm.) respectively, and the least 1.07 in. and .79 
( = 27.1 and 20 mm.). 
