348 COLUMBIDJE. 



placed on some stout bough of a large tree in the midst of dense 

 forest. 



The breeding-season appears to extend from March to July, and 

 they lay a single egg only. 



Writing from Kotagherry, Miss Cockburn says : " The nest of 

 the Nilghiri Wood-Pigeon resembles that of all Pigeons and Doves 

 in the careless manner in which a few sticks are put together. On 

 high trees in dense woods this bird prepares the abode for her 

 young, and chooses a projecting bough, as if she had some thought 

 for the safety of the egg she lays (I say egg, for I have seen four 

 nests of the Nilghiri Wood-Pigeon : two had one egg in each, and 

 the other two contained one young one in each). I have also re- 

 marked that only one Pigeon is noticed near the nests, which are 

 to be found in the month of April." 



Subsequently Miss Cockburn herself sent me, and Mr. Davison 

 brought me, eggs taken in June. The latter remarks : " This 

 Wood-Pigeon breeds on the Nilghiris and its slopes, breeding 

 rather late in the year. The nest, which is merely a platform 

 of dried twigs, is usually placed in some thick thorny bush or mass 

 of cane from about 12 to 20 feet from the ground. I believe that 

 this Pigeon, like the other large Fruit-Pigeons, only lays one egg ; 

 occasionally it may lay two, but if so this must be, I think, quite 

 exceptional." 



Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : " It 

 breeds in March and April in the dense woods of the Nilghiris, 

 depositing its single glossy-white egg on a loosely constructed 

 platform of sticks some 8 or 10 feet from the ground." 



Captain Horace Terry says, writing of the Pulney Hills: 

 " Common on most of the big sholas. Obtained a nest with one 

 egg at Kukal on the 17th May." 



The eggs are very perfect ovals, usually broad, sometimes slightly 

 elongated. They are, of course, pure white, spotless and glossy, 

 and absolutely undistinguishable from very large eggs of C. inter- 

 media, though, of course, considerably larger than the average of 

 these. 



The specimens I possess vary from 1-46 to 1-55 in length, and 

 from 1-07 to 1-2 in breadth. 



Palumbus torringtoni, Kelaart. The Ceylon Wood-Pigeon. 



Palumbus torringtoni, Kel.j Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 786 

 bis. 



" The habits of this Pigeon," writes Dr. Kelaart, " are strictly 

 arboreal ; it flies high and swiftly. It comes to Newera Elia to 

 breed, and I have seen a nest with only one egg as large as that 

 of the domestic Pigeon. The stomach contained fruits of the 

 Nelon." 



Colonel Legge writes, in his 4 Birds of Ceylon' : " I was never 

 fortunate enough to find this Pigeon's nest, nor to obtain much 



