82 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
In the Jbis for 1868, p. 45, Blyth thus refers to these specimens : 
“Sphenocercus cantillans, nobis, (passim) figured also by the late Prince of 
Canino, is merely S. sphenura the common Kokhela of the Himalayas, after 
moulting in captivity, when the green of the plumage is more or less completely 
replaced by delicate pearl grey, as was long ago remarked by my friend Captain 
Thomas Hutton of Masuri.” 
These two specimens are now in the Gould collection in the British Museum, 
and on examination they show not only that they have practically lost all 
the green and yellow pigment in their plumage, but in one case also a few of 
the quills of the left wing are pure white, showing a further development 
towards accidental albinoism. As already remarked the yellow pigment has 
practically disappeared both above and below, leaving the reds and greys 
dominant, though the red is also showing signs of exhaustion. The breast 
is a dull pink with no trace of orange, and the maroon of the back is as usual 
in area, but is dull and pale. 
It seems quite probable that in time these two birds would have become 
practically white, either from ill health, bad or unsuitable feeding, or some 
other cause. Captivity does not, though Blyth would seem to imply the 
contrary, normally cause Green Pigeons to lose their yellow or other pigment. 
I have now seen a good many, both of this and allied species, in captivity, 
but have so far come across no similar instance of discoloration. At the 
same time yellow pigment is undoubtedly the most volatile of all colouring 
matter in birds’ plumage, and in other species of green birds, such as the Cissas, 
the green, in captivity or in ill health, often becomes a blue through the 
yellow pigment evaporating and not being re-supplied. 
Distribution. The Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon is found from Kashmir 
in the west, through Nepal, Sikhim, Bhutan, the Dafla and Abor Hills, north 
of the Brahmapootra, and all the Assam hill-ranges south of that river, into 
the Chin Hills, Shan States and Burmese hill-ranges into Tenasserim. 
Nidification. The Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, as far as I personally 
know, and in so far as anything has yet been recorded, breeds only in evergreen- 
forests, or in forest which is in full leaf during their breeding-season. This 
commences in early April and extends through May and into June, but the 
great majority of young birds are well on the wing by the beginning of August 
or end of July. 
As usual with Green Pigeon both parents share the labour of making the 
nest, and of incubation when the eggs are laid. The nest is exactly like that 
of the Pin-tailed Green Pigeon, but is often placed at much greater heights 
from the ground. Mr. Dodsworth records one placed on a bough of a large 
tree about forty ft. up, and Hume says that they build their nests in trees 
at any height from six to fifty feet. Hume also says that they make their nests 
of coarse grass and twigs, but though I have seen a very large number of nests 
certainly not one in ten has had any grass in it, and they are usually made 
of dry dead twigs, more or less mixed and interlaced with live ones torn from 
the tree in which the bird is building. 
Most of the nests taken by myself were at heights between fifteen and 
twenty-five feet from the ground, but they were far more often placed above 
than below twenty feet, and more often than not on fairly large branches 
and boughs rather than on clusters of twigs and small branches. 
Though generally laying two eggs both these and the Pin-tailed Green 
Pigeon seem occasionally to lay but a single egg. I have found such hard- 
set, and nothing to show that a second egg had fallen from the nest. 
