JERDON’S IMPERIAL PIGEON 107 
Mr. J. Stewart also obtained this bird, together with its egg, at Ratnapura 
in Ceylon. 
Nidification. Bourdillon states that Jerdon’s Imperial Pigeon “has 
two broods in the year, but only lays one egg at a time. These two breeding- 
seasons are in April and again in November. I have seen a bird building 
in the latter month, and have had the young bird brought to me in January. 
The nest is a loose structure of twigs without any lining, and exactly resembling 
an English Wood-Pigeon’s. I was so fortunate as to find a nest at an elevation 
of 4,000 ft. above sea-level and 20 ft. from the ground, placed in a mass of 
tangled scrub (Beesha travancoria). The bird was sitting and returned to 
look at the nest, so we had a full view of her. Besides this I have had an 
egg sent me which had been taken at an equally high elevation. The egg 
is white and rather glossy; it is small for the size of the bird, being only 
1.38 by 1 in.” 
Davison, vide Barnes, took its egg and nest in Kanara in February, but 
does not give details of the former, and elsewhere he merely remarks that 
it resembles that of aenea. Mr. J. Stewart has taken numerous nests of the 
Pigeon in Travancore, where he found it breeding in January, March, and 
April, and has been so good as to send me a series of its eggs taken in that 
district, together with an egg obtained by him in Ceylon in October. 
The series sent me range in length from 1.64 in. ( = 41.6 mm.) to 1.88 
( = 47.7 mm.), and in breadth between 1.21 in. ( = 30.7 mm.) and 1.36 
(= 34.4 mm.). 
They are of the usual ellipse shape, but a little smaller at one end than 
the other, have a considerable gloss and a close fine texture, though not of 
the fineness and hardness of those of the genus Columba. 
Jerdon’s notes, written fifty years ago, are still the fullest account 
we have of this Pigeon’s habits in southern India. He writes: “It 
associates in general in small parties, or in pairs, frequenting the loftiest 
trees and feeding on various fruits. Its note is somewhat similar to that 
of the last [C. aenea], but still deeper, louder and more groaning. 
Tickell calls it a deep, short and repeated groan, woo woo woo. 
“ During the hot weather, from the middle of April to the first week 
in June, when the rains almost invariably commence on the Malabar 
coast, large numbers of this Pigeon descend from the neighbouring 
mountainous regions of Coorg and Wynadd to a large salt swamp in the 
neighbourhood of Cannanore, and there not only eat the buds of Aricennia 
and other shrubs and plants that affect salt and brackish swamps, but 
also (as I was credibly informed by several native Shikarees, to whom I 
was first indebted for the information of these Pigeons roosting there) 
pick up the salt earth on the edge of the swamp, and of the various creeks 
and backwaters that intersect the ground. I visited this place towards 
the end of May 1849, when many of the Pigeons had gone, as I was 
informed, but even then saw considerable numbers flying about and feeding 
on the buds of Aricennia, and then retiring a short distance to some lofty 
