162 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
European Wood-Pigeon, but average a trifle smaller. Oates, in Hume’s Nests 
and Eggs, says that they vary in length between 1.53 in. and 1.65 in., and in 
breadth from 1.06 in. to 1.2 in. 
There seems to be nothing in this bird’s habits calling for special 
remark, these being exactly the same as those of its European relation. 
It collects in very large flocks during the autumn, as soon as the 
breeding-season is over. Whitehead, writing of Kohat and the Kurrum 
Valley, says that in the autumn he found them in large flocks “in the 
scrub jungle above Marai, about Shinauri and in the wooded nullahs 
of the northern slopes of the Samana.” It is however, on the whole, 
a bird of well-wooded country, and it is probably exceptional for it 
to frequent scrub-jungle except at intervals when food is plentiful 
in such. 
It is quite active on the ground, though generally rather slow and 
deliberate in its movements. It feeds on grain, berries, shoots of trees, 
acorns, etc., and takes these as found, high up in a tree or on the ground 
itself. Its note is the same deep, soft ‘‘coo” as that of its European 
congener. 
Like the latter bird, also, it is not difficult to domesticate. Barnes 
remarked of a bird in his possession which he obtained in Chaman : 
“One that I have reared from the nest, and which I have brought with 
me to India, is wonderfully tame, answers when called, is fond of 
perching on my shoulders, and never attempts to fly away, although 
as usual I allow it full liberty.” 
