INDIAN BLUE ROCK-PIGEON 139 
Both sexes share equally in the labour of constructing the nest, incubating 
the eggs, and feeding the young. The latter process is carried out in the 
same manner as by the domestie pigeon, the parent birds semi-digesting 
the food and regurgitating it for the benefit of the young. In feeding, the 
young bird thrusts its head nearly into the mouth of the parent engaged 
in looking after it, the whole bill and face disappearing from view. The 
young grow with great rapidity, and are nearly as big as their parents in 
about three weeks, 
The eggs cannot in any way be discriminated from those of the European 
Rock-Pigeon, or Rock-Dove, though they would seem to average a little 
bigger. Hume’s measurements of a series of sixty eggs gave an average of 
1.45 in. (= 35.7 mm.) by 1.12 in. (= 28.4 mm.), and the extremes in length 
as 1.20 in. (= 30.4 mm.) to 1.65 in. (= 41.4 mm.) and in breadth 1.02 in. 
(= 25.9 mm.) to 1.25 in. (= 32.7 mm.). All the eggs I have measured 
come within the range of variation of the above eggs, and the average is 
exactly the same as Hume’s. 
The normal shape is a long ellipse, oval or pointed eggs being very 
exceptional. The texture is close and smooth, but not very fine, though 
the surface is often highly glossed. 
The Indian Blue Rock-Pigeon is, like its European cousin, more 
a bird of open country than of dense forest, but it is found practically 
anywhere where there are suitable sites or buildings for it to build in, 
and as it is a bird which easily adapts itself to circumstances, there 
are not many districts from which it is altogether excluded. 
In all probability its original haunts were cliffs on rocky coasts, 
and ravines and precipices in mountainous regions, from which it spread 
gradually to quarries and ruined buildings deserted by man, and from 
these again it in time ventured into the actual towns, villages, and forts 
occupied by human beings. 
Jerdon says: “They are most partial to large buildings, such as 
Churches, Pagodas, Mosques, Tombs, and the like ; frequently entering 
the verandas of inhabited houses and breeding in the cornices. Holes 
in walls of cities or towns, too, are favourite places, and, in some parts 
of the country, they prefer holes in wells, especially, I think, in 
the west of India, the Deccan, etc. In default of such spots, they 
will breed in crevices and cavities of rocks, caverns and sea-side cliffs, 
and I have often noticed that they are particularly partial to rocky 
cliffs by water-falls.”’ 
Wherever found it congregates in colonies as great as the breeding 
accommodation will permit of, and in some places it collects literally in 
many thousands. A specially favoured place, and one referred to by 
Jerdon, is the Gaissoppa Falls in southern India, which they frequent 
