PIN-TAILED GREEN PIGEON 75 
Nidification. The breeding-season of this Fruit-Pigeon begins early in 
the lower elevations of its habitat, but not until April at all heights from 
2,500 ft. upwards. They continue to breed throughout April, May, and to some 
extent in June, whilst many birds have second broods in July and August. 
Like all the members of this family, however, their breeding-season is a very 
lengthy and very irregular one, and there is practically no month in the year 
in which one may not come across their nests containing both eggs and young 
of all ages. They breed most commonly between 2,000 and 3,000 ft., but 
Dr. A. N. Coltart took numerous nests in the plains of Dibrugarh, and I have 
also taken nests in the foot-hills of Cachar and Sylhet. On the other hand 
it certainly breeds as high as 6,000 ft., and possibly still higher in Nepal 
and Sikhim. 
During the breeding-season the male bird indulges in the usual 
demonstrations of love performed by all Green Pigeons, including the general 
puffing out of the feathers, drooping of the wings, and constant bowings and 
bobbings. As usual, also, the interest of the female in such displays is of the 
slightest, though occasionally she too indulges in a minor display of 
pirouettes. 
The nest is the normal platform of small twigs, and these may be either 
dry or green and torn from the tree by the birds themselves. Roughly 
speaking the nest may be anything from 5 to 8 in. in diameter and from one- 
half to 2 in. deep, according to its situation; the depression, if any, is very 
slight, and the eggs are often prevented from rolling out only by the projections 
of the interlacing twigs. They do not take long to construct, although the 
work of building is only carried out in the cool of the morning and evening, 
and whilst some nests are completed in three or four days, most take about a 
week. Incubation lasts about fifteen or sixteen days, and both birds take 
part in this labour, the cock also taking upon himself to feed the hen-bird 
whilst she sits. 
The nest is nearly always placed upon a number of twigs or small branches 
of a sapling, generally between ten and fifteen feet above the ground, but 
T have also taken it from thick bushes at anything between five and twelve feet, 
and less often from large boughs of forest-trees. Bamboo-clumps, which 
form such favourite nesting-sites for many Green Pigeons, are very seldom 
made use of by this species, and I have never seen their nests placed in 
cane-brakes. 
As a rule, the kind of country selected for nesting purposes is evergreen- 
forest, a tree being chosen either on the outskirts of this, or else in an opening 
near a stream, a patch of cultivation, or some natural glade of grass and fern. 
The eggs are, as usual, two in number, pure white and elliptical in shape, 
though often one, and sometimes both ends are somewhat pointed. The 
texture is the same as that of the eggs of the genus Osmotreron, perhaps a 
trifle more coarse and porous, as they seem to get discoloured and stained 
more easily. 
The average of one hundred eggs is 1.25 by .98 in. ( = 31.7 by 24.8 mm.) 
and they vary in length between 1.09 and 1.37 ( = 27.6 and 35 mm.) and 
in breadth between .87 and 1.03 ( = 22.1 and 26.1 mm.). 
The Pin-tailed Green Pigeon is essentially a bird of the hills and 
mountains, ascending them throughout its range to over 6,000 ft., 
and being more common above 2,000 ft. than below this height. At 
the same time it is also found quite down into the plains near the hills, 
