ALSOCOMUS. 345 



From one single old kutcha well in the south of the Meerut 

 District I netted one night over two hundred, and a good many 

 others made good their escape. 



Colonel Gr . F. L. Marshall says : " I have often found the 

 nests on edges of buildings. I have taken eggs in the Doab in 

 April, May, and June, earliest hi Saharunpoor, latest further south 

 and east." 



Lieut. H. E. Barnes, writing of Eajpootana, says that " by far 

 the favourite site for the nest of the Indian Blue Rock-Pigeon is 

 in holes of masonry wells." 



Colonel Butler remarks : " The Blue Eock-Pigeon breeds in 

 the neighbourhood of Deesa I fancy the whole year round. They 

 build usually in holes in wells, temples, buildings, &c., making a 

 pad of sticks and laying generally two good-sized pure white eggs. 

 I have taken nests in almost every month." 



And subsequently he remarked : " Belgaum District. Nests 

 observed on the 24th October and 5th December, 1879, contain- 

 ing fresh eggs." 



Captain Horace Terry remarks, speaking of the Pulney hills : 

 " A large colony on the cliffs near Pittur." 



In Ceylon, Colonel Legge informs us, these Pigeons breed in the 

 Trincomali District in May and June. 



The eggs, to the best of my belief, are precisely similar to those 

 of C. livia, and like them vary a great deal in size and a good deal 

 in shape, from broad very perfect ovals, only slightly compressed 

 at one end, to moderately elongated and occasionally rather pointed 

 forms. They are very glossy, and of course pure white. 



In length they vary from 1-2 to 1-65, and in breadth from 1-02 

 to 1'25 ; but the average of some sixty eggs measured was 1-45 

 by 1-12. 



Subfamily PALUMBIN^J. 



Alsocomus puniceus, Tick. The Purple Wood-Pigeon. 



Alsocomus puniceus, Tick., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 462 ; Hume, Cat. 



no. 782. 



Mr. Gates writes from Pegu : " KyeiTcpadein, 27th July. Nest 

 in a fork of a horizontal bamboo-bough, about 10 feet 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. Probably only one egg is laid." 



