344 COLTTMBID^E. 



Order COLOMBO. 



Family COLUMBID^l. 



Subfamily COLUMBINE. 



Columba intermedia, Strickl. The Indian Blue Hock-Pigeon. 



Columba intermedia, Strickl., Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 469 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. $ E. no, 788. 



Our Indian Blue Rock-Pigeons breed freely, as far as I have 

 been able to ascertain, throughout India proper, alike in hills and 

 plains, though many of the Himalayan and Sulinian Range birds 

 are intermediate between O. intermedia and G. livia, and a few 

 may be considered typical specimens of the latter. Into Assam, 

 Cachar, and Burma I am not aware that it extends, but these 

 localities have been as yet too little worked to enable me to speak 

 with certainty to the fact. 



The breeding-season in Upper India lasts from Christmas to 

 May-day. The nest is chiefly composed of thin sticks and twigs, 

 but are often more or less lined with leaves of the tamarisk, 

 feathers, &c. As to situation I can quite endorse Dr. Jerdon's 

 account. He says : " They are most partial to large buildings, 

 such as churches, pagodas, mosques, tombs, and the like, frequently 

 entering verandahs of inhabited houses and building in the cornices. 

 Holes in walls of cities or towns, too, are favourite places, and in 

 some parts of the country they prefer holes in wells, especially, I 

 think, in the west of India, the Deccan, &c. In default of such 

 spots they will breed in crevices and cavities of rocks, caverns, and 

 sea-side cliffs ; and I have often noticed that they are particularly 

 partial to rocky cliffs by waterfalls. The celebrated falls of Grair- 

 soppa are tenanted by thousands of Blue Pigeons, which here 

 associate with the large Alpine Swift." 



Where not disturbed they breed in incredible multitudes. At 

 the grand old fort of Deig in Bhurtpoor, where, as in most parts 

 of Rajpootana, they are sacred, and even a European who molested 

 them would risk his life, several hundred thousand pairs must live 

 and breed. A gun fired in the moat towards evening raises a 

 dense cloud, obscuring utterly the waning day and deafening one 

 with the mighty rushing sound of countless strong and rapidly- 

 plied pinions. Here for the first time I realized what the flights 

 of Ectopistes migratorius in North America might be like. 



