136 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
“ Bill black, with a white mealiness at the humid base of its upper- 
mandible ; irides brownish-orange; lids bluish-white, and legs reddish- 
pink ” (Blyth). 
Measurements. Much the same as those of Columba livia livia, its 
European cousin. The series in the British Museum, a very complete one, 
from the Hume Collection principally, has wing-measurements varying from 
8.3 in. (= 209.8 mm.) to 9.35 in. (= 237.4 mm.), with an average of almost 
exactly 9 in. (= 228.6 mm.). The weight runs up to about 12 oz., but 
averages somewhere about 10 oz. or a little over ; “10 to 11.5 02.” (Scully). 
Adult female. Similar to the male. 
Colours of soft parts. Similar to the same parts in the male, but the 
iris possibly never assumes as bright a golden-red tint as it sometimes does 
in old males. 
Measurements. The female is a decidedly smaller bird than the male, 
with a wing-measurement averaging very little, if anything, over 8.70 in. 
( = 220 mm.) and varying between 8.02 in. ( = 202.7 mm.) and 8.80 in. 
( = 222.4 mm.). The other measurements differ from those of the male in 
corresponding degree. 
Weight from 84 oz. to 11 oz., and averaging about 9} oz. 
Young male. Similar to the adult, but rather browner, and with the 
wing-bars less distinct and the iridescent colours of the neck not so well 
developed. 
The feathers of the back, wing-coverts, and more rarely of the head and 
breast, are fringed with pale dull brown. 
Colours of soft parts. The iris is at first a dull glaucous-brown, then a 
pale reddish-brown, from which it gradually changes to the orange-red of the 
adult. The legs are a less brilliant red in tint and often paler. 
Nestling, in down. Pale yellow-buff. 
Nestlings just prior to leaving the nest are often so fat that they weigh 
as much as, and sometimes even more than, the adult birds. 
Distribution. Throughout India from Ceylon over the whole peninsula 
of India to the extreme north-west, throughout the Himalayas to a considerable 
elevation, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikhim, and Tibet. It occurs in south Sylhet, 
but I never came across it inthe North Cachar Hills or in Cachar itself except 
in Hylakandy, where it was very rare. It is not found in the eastern Assam 
Valley, but is occasionally seen in Goalpara and north-east of Mymensingh, 
and is again fairly common in Noakhali and Chittagong. In Burma it is 
common in the central dry zone, and is recorded as common in the 
Myingyan district by Macdonald, but is apparently absent from most of 
the wet and well forested parts, and is nof common all over Burma, as stated 
by Blyth. 
As it is certain that future systematists will examine this Pigeon very 
carefully, with a view to splitting it up into various geographical subspecies, 
it may be as well for me to record here the result of my own investigations 
into the subject. 
In the first place it is undoubtedly the fact that birds from the Himalayan 
regions, from Afghanistan and Baluchistan, and those from the more desert 
countries and parts of the Deccan, are on the whole paler than are birds from 
southern India, Ceylon, north-east India, and Burma; that is to say, birds 
from high elevations and desert-country average somewhat lighter than those 
from forested and more humid places. 
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