246 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
observed, and I have examined a great many of these birds, I find that 
they live exclusively on the Nepal or bird’s-eye chilli. 
“This plant grows abundantly all over the Andamans and Nico- 
bars, especially in the secondary jungle, and on the edges of clearings. 
I was informed, when at the Andamans, that the flesh of this bird was 
quite pungent from feeding on these chillies, but I tried several, having 
had them cooked without even the usual adjuncts of pepper or salt, 
and although the flesh had a somewhat peculiar, but not unpleasant, 
flavour, I could not detect the slightest trace of this attributed 
pungency. ‘The amount of chillies consumed by these Doves must 
be enormous. I have often shot them with their crops so distorted 
that, falling from a moderate height, they have burst.” 
In regard to this quaint diet, Messrs. Abbot and Kloss record that 
they found the bird on all the islands except Car Nicobar, and most 
common on Katchal, where all those they shot were found to have 
been feeding on chillies. Butler, however, though he also examined 
the contents of the stomachs of nine dozen birds, never found a chilli 
in any of them. He notes the contents of four birds’ stomachs as 
follows: “‘(1) Crop full of a small, hard, round, black seed, about the 
size of No. 1 shot. I bit open one or two of these and they had a 
white nutty kernel, which caused a slight but distinct irritation in the 
mouth, lasting for some moments. (2) Crop contained 39 green berries, 
looking very like large boiled peas. (3) Had been feeding on a long 
green fruit, an inch in length, with another inch of stalk attached. 
(4) Same as (2).” 
Like their bigger relative the Bar-tailed Cuckoo-Dove, they are 
both arboreal and terrestrial in their habits, feeding, as is shown in the 
notes quoted above, freely both on trees and on the ground. Their flight 
is said to be quick and powerful, and Butler describes them as flying at 
a very great height when flighting to and from their feeding-grounds. 
Their plumage, like that of all others of this genus, is very lax, 
and seems to be loosely attached to the skin, so that when shot, and on 
falling to the ground, they lose so many feathers that it is very difficult 
to procure good specimens for museums. 
There appears to be nothing on record in regard to their voice 
beyond Osmaston’s note in the Bombay Natural History Society’s 
Journal, where he states that it is very peculiar and somewhat 
resembling that of Cuculus c. canorus, the common Cuckoo. 
