ASHY WOOD-PIGEON 175 
when first leaving the tree instead of springing into the air with an extra 
effort, as so many of their relations do. 
Although so noiseless, their flight is just as powerful as that of 
any other of the bigger Pigeons, and the way they dodged in and 
out of the trees when going at speed was really astonishing. 
The first time I ever saw this Wood-Pigeon was when finding one 
of the Pigeon’s nests referred to above. I saw the parent bird slip over 
the side, fired a snap-shot at it and missed. I had a good glimpse of 
the bird, however, and saw that it was something quite new to me, 
so lying full-length and well hidden in the bracken I waited until the 
bird returned, when I again fired and again missed. Hiding again, 
I once more waited in hopes they would return, but it was not until 
over two hours had passed that at last both birds appeared and perched 
on the tree close to the nest and then, after knocking over one as it sat, 
I was lucky enough to get the other as it flew off. 
Both these birds had been feeding on a small berry, growing on a 
tiny creeping-plant which is entirely terrestrial in its habits, so they 
must have descended to the ground to get them. They also eat all 
fruit, acorns, etc., especially the blackberries and raspberries which 
grow in great profusion over the higher hills. The Nagas also tell me 
that they sometimes come into their patches of Indian corn, but that 
they are never numerous enough to do any real damage. I have also, 
on one occasion only in November, seen them walking about in the 
rice-stubble on a hill-side, evidently picking up the rice which lay about 
in considerable quantities. Another bird I shot had been eating wild 
cardamum berries, and yet another had its crop full of tiny snails—little 
things, none of them as big as a green pea. 
They go about in very small flocks and sometimes singly or in pairs. 
I have never seen a flock of more than five, but it must be remembered 
that my district was only on the fringe of their normal habitat, and 
in more favoured regions the flocks may number more. 
I have seldom heard their note, which is very like that of the 
English Wood-Pigeon—a deep, sonorous “coo,” but I think it is deeper 
still, and it is certainly more abrupt and less soft. 
