118 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
does sometimes get easy sitting shots and opportunities of observing the 
birds fairly closely, but they are not often. 
“T usually came across them singly or in parties of three or four 
to a dozen or so. When feeding on the ground the Caloenas walks 
about much like a large Emerald Dove, but carries its wings much 
lower, often indeed dropping them so much as to give one the idea 
of their being injured at the shoulder. 
“When not feeding they sit silent and alert on some bare 
horizontal bough, about thirty or forty feet from the ground; seen 
thus they look very dark in colour, almost blackish, as, indeed, they 
generally do when seen in the shade. 
“Their flight is swift and very strong, though heavy looking ; 
the flutter they make in leaving a tree is peculiarly loud and character- 
istic, so that I could always tell by ear whether a bird flying out over 
my head was a Caloenas or one of the common Imperial Pigeons.” 
Butler found that birds killed on Car Nicobar had been eating 
the same kind of food as that described by Davison. They are said to be 
very good to eat, and to get, like most Pigeons, very fat when their 
favourite foods are plentiful. 
This bird is a very favourite cage-bird throughout Asia, and in 
most other countries also, as it is extremely hardy and not nearly so 
quarrelsome as are most Pigeons, provided it is accommodated with a 
large enough aviary. As might be expected from its terrestrial habits 
it is largely a grain-feeder, and. in captivity its diet generally consists 
more of rice, corn, maize, etc., than fruit, though it greedily eats almost 
any fruit that is given to it. 
Some of the individuals in the Zoological Gardens in Calcutta 
have got so used to visitors and so tame that they fly down to the 
wires of the aviaries and follow people round in quest of dainties. 
These birds eat scraps of bread and biscuit freely, and, I am informed, 
with no bad effects. They seem very tolerant in their disposition 
towards other birds sharing their captivity, and I have never noticed 
them fighting with one another in the manner described by Davison, 
even during the breeding-season. 
Mr. Sanyal describes their “display ’’ as being very beautiful ; 
the cock-bird bowing and scraping just as all other Pigeon do, but 
during these antics the gorgeous metallic feathers are all puffed out 
and glitter and shine in the most wonderful way with each bob of the 
