PIED IMPERIAL PIGEON 111 
in nearly all cases, as I have already said, it is most highly developed about 
the head, especially round the gape. If, as I think, this tint is merely nutmeg 
or some other vegetable stain, we should expect to find, as is the case, that 
normally the head, which comes in constant contact with the fruit, most 
deeply stained, and the abdomen and rump which the bird constantly preens 
with its dye-covered bill, next most deeply marked. The tint fades consider- 
ably after death, though persisting in regular patches here and there on the 
body, and nearly always to some extent on the head. 
Distribution. Blanford thus defines the range of this beautiful Pigeon, 
“From the Andamans and Nicobars through the Malay Archipelago to New 
Guinea and Australia where a local form (JZ. spilorrhoa) occurs. This Pigeon 
breeds in the Nicobars, and is a seasonal visitant to the Andamans, Cocos, 
Narcondam, Barren Island, according to Blyth to the Mergui Archipelago, 
but not, so far as is known, to the mainland of Tenasserim. According to 
Dr. Mainjay, this species also visits the Islands only on the coast of the Malay 
Peninsula.” Since this was written it has been procured by Mr. C. Hopwood’s 
collectors a little south of Sandoway in Arakan, Burma (1910), and long 
prior to that Dr. A. L. Butler recorded them as occurring at Kuala Selangor 
on the mainland of the Malay Peninsula, and it would therefore appear that 
this bird regularly, if in no great numbers, is found on the mainland of Burma 
from the latitude of Sandoway all down the Malay Peninsula. Mr. Hopwood’s 
men, moreover, it should be noted, knew the bird well, and said that they 
were numerous, breeding on the islands off the coast, and visiting the mainland 
during the winter months. 
Nidification. Davison failed to actually take the nest, but writes: 
“ Although I did not obtain the nests or eggs of this bird myself, from all I 
could ascertain from the convicts, etc., these birds breed in January, February, 
and March, building their nests, which, like those of other Pigeons, are merely 
platforms of sticks, by preference in the mangroves, and laying usually only 
one white egg.” 
Captain Wimberley took its egg on Trinkut Island during the first week 
of February, and describes its nest as being similar to that of an English 
Wood-Pigeon, placed in an old mangrove tree overhanging a river. It con- 
tained one addled egg measuring 1.78 in. by 1.25, of the usual shape and 
description. I have a nice series of these eggs in my collection taken by 
Mr. B. B. Osmaston at South Sentinel Island on the 17th March, 1907, and 
kindly given by him to me. In shape these eggs are rather long ovals, almost 
ellipses, and in one or two cases distinctly pointed at both ends. The texture 
is very fine and close with a smooth surface, in some cases decidedly glossy. 
They vary in length between 1.73 ( = 43.9 mm.) and 1.90 in. ( = 48.2 mm.), 
and in breadth between 1.24 ( = 31.4 mm.) and 1.30 in. ( = 33 mm.), the 
average being 1.8 ( = 46.2 mm.) by 1.26 in. ( = 32 mm.). 
Mr. Osmaston describes the taking of these eggs in the Bombay Natural 
History Journal as follows: “‘ We found the Island simply swarming with the 
Pied Imperial Pigeon, and it was not long before we discovered a nest 
containing a single fresh egg, followed by many others. Altogether we 
found some 50 nests containing each a single egg, some fresh, some more or 
less incubated. 
“The nests were not, as a rule, close together. They were placed near 
the tops of small trees, or on the lower branches of big ones, usually about 
25 ft. from the ground. One nest I found was only 10 ft. from the ground, 
but this was exceptional. 
