158 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
have been, like those found by myself, built on small trees growing in stunted 
forest-growth. 
My eggs vary in length between 1.34 in. ( = 33.9 mm.) and 1.64 in. 
(= 41.5 mm.) and in width between 1.02 in. (= 25.9 mm.) and 1.16 in. 
( = 29.4 mm.). 
In shape, texture, and surface they are typical Wood-Pigeon’s eggs, but 
in one egg the shape is somewhat elongated and pointed at one end. 
This Pigeon has always been considered a bird of very high 
elevations, i.e. as Blanford says, from 10,000 to 13,000 ft. in summer, 
and from 6,000 to 9,000 ft. in winter. Doubtless it does often range 
up to these heights, but probably it is also resident at much lower 
altitudes. Ward says that it is fairly common in Kishtwar in Kash- 
mir, and that it breeds in that district at about 8,000 ft. In the 
Naga Hills it certainly breeds as low down as this, and perhaps lower ; 
Stephens found it at 8,000 ft. during the breeding-season in Nepal, 
and I have had it from about the same elevation in native Sikhim. 
In habits, as far as these are known, it is more of a Wood-Pigeon 
than a Rock-Pigeon, being very arboreal, though it will also descend 
to the ground to feed when there is anything to entice it there. It 
assembles in very small flocks as a rule and in north Cachar more than 
four or five were never seen together; very often it went about in 
pairs only, and occasionally a single bird might be met with. 
Its note is easily distinguishable from that of any other Pigeon 
I have ever heard ; it begins with a coughing, jerked-out note, and then 
continues with a deep double rolling-note which might be syllablized 
as ‘ whock-whrroo-w hrroo,” the third note more prolonged than the 
second. It is a very deep resonant note, and can be heard at a 
great distance. 
It is said to be fairly common in some of the pine-forests of Nepal 
and Sikhim, but on the north-eastern frontier of India it is found almost 
always in the stunted oak-forest which grows above 5,000 ft., and I 
have never met with it in the pine-woods of either the Khasia Hills 
or north Cachar. 
It feeds on berries, acorns, small wild-plums, grain, and black- 
berries, raspberries, and strawberries. I have also shot them out of 
stubble in patches of rice-cultivation, but they appear only to frequent 
these when they are well surrounded by the oak-forest. The crops of 
those shot in such places were always full of rice, often mixed with 
tiny pebbles and a little earth. 
