NILGIRI WOOD-PIGEON 167 
Davison records of the Nilgiri Wood-Pigeon that it is not 
uncommon in the woods and slopes of the Nilgherries, though he did not 
meet with it either in the Wynnad or Mysore. He adds: “ It moves 
about a good deal, and a shola that may be full of them one week, will 
not contain a single specimen of them the following week ; this is due, 
I fancy, to the prevalence or otherwise of berries. I too have noticed 
the fact mentioned by Jerdon of their feeding on the ground outside 
the forests. I found them very numerous in March in the forests 
about Meddivuttam, and procured a good number of specimens.” 
It is said to be a shy, wary bird, and where it is much shot at it 
soon becomes impossible to get near enough with a gun. 
The flight is much the same as that of the European Wood-Pigeon, 
very powerful and fast, and they are also said to generally fly at a good 
height when passing from one feeding-ground to another. 
During the cold weather they are nearly always found in flocks 
—rarely singly or in pairs ; but all field-naturalists who have watched 
these Pigeons agree that the flocks are invariably small, and a party 
of a dozen birds seems quite exceptional. 
The only note I have concerning its call is one contained in a letter 
from a friend, in reply to a query, who stated that “it is on the whole 
avery quiet bird, and I cannot distinguish its coo in any way from 
that of its European cousin. Its soft, sweet notes may sometimes be 
heard in the sholas very early in the morning, as the birds call to one 
another before flighting to their feeding-grounds, and again in the 
evenings, when the birds carry on a soft murmuring conversation 
amongst themselves before settling off to sleep.” 
