PURPLE WOOD-PIGEON 177 
(= 224 mm.); bill at front .65 in. (= 16.5 mm.) and from gape 1.1 in. 
(= 27.9 mm.); tarsus rather under 1.0 in. (= 25 mm.); tail 6 in. 
( = 152.4 mm.) to 7 in. (= 177.8 mm.). 
Tenasserim birds do not appear to be any smaller than those 
from north-east India, one of them having a wing measuring 9.25 in. 
( = 234.9 mm.), but in the Hume collection there is a rather large percentage 
of obviously young birds from this part of Burma, and it may be on this 
account that Blanford has recorded his opinion to the effect that birds from 
this district are smaller than from elsewhere. 
Davison has only given the weight of one bird, and this as but 8 oz. 
On the other hand, the only two I have weighed were 14 and 14} oz. 
respectively, and 8 oz. seems very little for so big a bird so it may have been 
a mistake for 18 oz. Cripps records the weight of six males as varying 
between 12.75 and 18 oz. 
Adult female. Similar to the male, but slightly smaller. The head is 
as pure a grey and the purple-chestnut as rich and glossy in the fully adult 
female as it is in the male, but from the large percentage of dull coloured 
females in collections it may be that females take six months or a year longer 
than the males in obtaining their full splendour. 
Measurements. The female is decidedly smaller than the male, being 
about 14 in. (= 355.6 mm.) in total length and with a wing-average of 
8.44 in. (= 214.3 mm.) and a range in extremes of 8.0 in. (= 203.2 mm.) 
and 8.85 (= 224.8 mm.); the measurements of the other parts are 
correspondingly slightly smaller. Two females weighed by Cripps were 
13.60 and 14 oz. respectively. 
Young in first year’s plumage ( ? females in second year also) are generally 
much duller in coloration and with the under-parts from chin to vent a dull 
pale brown only suffused here and there with chestnut ; the head is the same 
coloration as the neck, and the upper-parts are more brown. 
Young in first plumage are still browner and duller and have the wing- 
coverts and interscapulars brown margined with rufous and submargined 
with darker. 
Distribution. In the heavily-forested parts of Eastern Bengal, 
Singhbhum, Manbhum, Purulia, Sunderbunds, Dacca and Mymensingh and 
thence throughout the districts of the Assam Valley into Burma. South and 
east of Assam it is found in Cachar, Sylhet, Tipperah and Chittagong, and 
through all the damper wooded parts of Burma, Cochin China, and Siam 
into the Malay Peninsula. There is a single specimen of this species in the 
Poole Museum, which was procured by Layard in Ceylon, and Legge himself 
thought he saw a flock of them near Borella in 1869. Since then no one 
has again met with this Pigeon, and it can only occur in that island as a very 
rare straggler. It has never been found in southern India. 
Nidification. There are only two notes recorded on the breeding of this 
Pigeon. Oates, the first to discover its nests and eggs, writing to Hume 
from Pegu recorded: “ Kyeikpadein, 27th July.—Nest in fork of horizontal 
bamboo-bough, about 10 ft. from the ground, composed of a few twigs woven 
carelessly together. Male bird sitting. One egg quite fresh. Colour white, 
very glossy. Size 1.47 by 1.15 in. Probably only one egg laid.” 
The first eggs seen by myself were taken by my collectors on the Ist 
and 2nd of June, 1889, and were brought to me a few days later. The two 
nests from which they were taken were described as rough structures of 
sticks through which the eggs were visible from below, and in both cases 
N 
