ANDAMANESE WOOD-PIGEON 181 
Adult female. “In the female the head and neck is slightly greyer 
than in the male ” (Blanford). radi 
I cannot see that this difference is constant, and there is one female in 
the British Museum Collection with a head as pure a grey-white as it is in any 
of the males. The difference noted by Blanford is probably only due to 
immaturity. 
Colours of soft parts are the same as in the male. 
Measurements. From the small series available for comparison it would 
appear that the female is slightly smaller than the male. Excluding 
an abnormally small, poor-conditioned female with a wing of only 8.5 in. 
( = 215.9 mm.) the remaining four females in the Museum Collection vary 
in wing-measurements between 9.5 in. (=241.3 mm.) and 9.95 in. 
( = 252.7 mm.), with an average of 9.70 in. (= 246.3 mm.). Measurements 
of bill and tarsus are also slightly smaller on an average than the male. 
“Weight 1 lb. 2 oz.” (Hume). 
Young in first year. Have the head a much darker grey than in the 
adult and with no green sheen, the wider parts are a duller, browner 
grey, also without sheen, and the back and wing-coverts are browner and 
less glossy. 
Distribution. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 
Nidification. Nothing has as yet been discovered as regards the breeding 
of this fine Pigeon. 
The Andaman Wood-Pigeon is a bird concerning which practically 
nothing has been recorded since its discovery, in 1873, by Hume and 
Davison. 
It appears to be closely similar to the Fruit-Pigeons in its habits, 
and Hume, writing about a bird which he then had alive in Calcutta, 
says: “In its mode of holding itself and its broad substantial body it 
is a typical Carpophaga and not at all like the more slender and pigeon-like 
Metallica.’ Butler, however, does not agree with this, for he writes (l.c.) : 
*T only shot it once on Car Nicobar, and unfortunately the bird went 
bad before I could preserve it. It seemed to me more of a Wood-Pigeon 
than a Fruit-Pigeon ; my bird rose either from the ground or from a 
low branch within a foot or two from it—far lower than I have 
seen a Carpophaga settle.” This settling on low branches would, how- 
ever, appear to be exceptional, for Hume thus describes one of their 
favourite resting-places: “‘ About midway in the Straits is a conical 
rocky islet, perhaps half an acre in extent, rising to an elevation of 
70 or 80 ft., and crowned by trees of an equal or greater height ; these 
trees seemed to be a favourite half-way house of the Fruit-Pigeons. 
During the half-hour that we hung about and remained on the island 
we must have seen a couple of hundred. They were always perched 
on the tops of the highest trees; we could see them perfectly well from 
