SPECKLED WOOD-PIGEON 157 
to 152.4 mm.); tarsus under 1 in. (25.0 mm.) ; bill at front .6 in. to .7 in. 
( = 15.2 to 17.7 mm.) and from gape about 1 in. (25.4 mm.). 
Adult female. In the female the whole of the grey is tinged with brown, 
and there is no pink on the grey margins to the feathers of the breast and 
abdomen. The claret, or maroon-red, on the upper-parts of the male is 
replaced with dark brown, in some individuals more or less suffused with 
slaty-grey. The red of the under-parts is replaced by dark grey-brown, but a 
few specimens, probably very old females, show a slight tint of claret-colour 
in small patches on the flanks and abdomen. 
Colours of soft parts. As in the male, but the iris is often a brownish- 
white. 
Measurements. The female is a slightly smaller bird than the male 
with a wing between 8.5 in. ( = 215.9 mm.) and 9.0 in. ( = 228.6 mm.), and 
the other dimensions in proportion. 
Young male. Like the female, but the smaller wing-coverts all edged 
with rufous-brown and with practically no white spotting. The under-surface 
of the body is also more or less barred with grey and rufous, and the abdomen 
is nearly entirely of this latter colour. 
Distribution. From the extreme west of Kashmir, where however 
it is not common, throughout Nepal, Sikhim, Tibet, the hill-ranges north 
and south of the Brahmapootra, Manipur and the Looshai Hills into the 
Chin Hills and Shan States in northern Burma. 
Nidification. The only note hitherto recorded about these Pigeons’ 
breeding is contained in Captain Irby’s remarks in the Jbis for 1861, where 
he notes that ‘‘some nested in inaccessible cliffs, near Monsheyaree, about 
seventy miles from Almorah.” In this Captain Irby was probably mistaken, 
as I have taken their nests myself in trees, and Mr. H. Stevens, though he 
failed to actually take their nests, shot birds which were breeding in the 
well-forested parts of Nepal and not in the higher rocky parts above 
the forest. 
The only two nests taken by myself were both found in a lofty hill-range, 
running to over 6,000 ft., an offshoot of the Barail Range in north Cachar. 
Here in winter this Pigeon was not very uncommon, but it must have been 
quite exceptional for it to stay and breed as for many years I failed to obtain 
a nest, or indeed to find the bird after April, nor did I ever again meet with it 
breeding after this one year. 
Both nests were of the usual type of Wood-Pigeon’s nest, a rough platform 
of twigs, green and dry, interwoven with one another, with but little depression 
for the eggs, and no lining of any kind. Both were placed in small stunted 
oaks, which here were almost the only kind of tree to be met with, and were 
built on horizontal boughs some 15 to 20 ft. from the ground. In one case 
the nest half-rested on a clump of that sweet-scented white orchid, 
Celogyne odorissima, and in the other case, half on the bough and half on 
a cluster of twigs. 
Each nest contained a single fresh egg and the dates on which they were 
found were on the 28th May and Ist June, 1896. 
Last year, 1912, I was fortunate enough to obtain six of these eggs from 
Nepal, all taken at elevations between eight and ten thousand feet and on 
dates between the 22nd May and the 18th June; each nest contained but a 
single egg, and it would therefore appear as if this was the normal number 
laid, and not two as laid by most Wood-Pigeons. All the nests were said to 
