360 COLUMBIIXE. 



country it prefers, and why it is common in one district and rare 

 in a neighbouring one in which all physical conditions appear 

 identical. 



It is very common in the bare arid treeless region that surrounds 

 the Sambhur Lake. It is common in some dry well -cultivated 

 districts, like Etawah, where there are plenty of old mango groves. 

 It is very common in some of the comparatively humid tracts, like 

 Bareilly, and again in the Sal jungles of the Kumaon Bhabur and 

 the Nepal Terai. On the other hand, over wide extents of similar 

 country it is scarcely to be seen. Doubtless there is something in 

 its food or mode of life that limits its distribution, but I have 

 never yet been able to make out what this something is. 



Eggs may be found any time between January and July, but 

 my impression is that normally they have only two broods, and 

 lay for the first as a rule in January, for the second in May or 

 June. 



I have always found the nests at or near the extremities of the 

 lower boughs of very large trees, at heights of from 8 to 15 feet 

 from the ground, and laid across any two or three convenient 

 horizontal branchlets. As a rule, the nests are excessively slight 

 structures, composed of a few slender sticks or grass-stems, or 

 both, so loosely and sparsely put together that the eggs can 

 generally be spied from below through the bottom of the nest. 



Two is the number of the eggs. 



I reproduce an extract from a paper on the nidification of this 

 and other species which I contributed some years ago to ' The Ibis.' 

 It was written from Bareilly in June : " One more piece of good 

 luck yet remained for us. For weeks I had known that our 

 smallest Dove, the beautiful little Turtur liumilis, was sitting. 

 Everywhere the males, conspicuous in their tender lilac-grey suit 

 with rich ruddy vinous mantle and black velvet necklaces, were to 

 be seen busy on the grass, but not a single lady was visible 

 obviously the white kid was on the knocker, if only one could find 

 the house, but this had fairly puzzled us. Just as I was entering 

 the bungalow and taking a last loving glance at the fair face of 

 nature, so soon to be hidden from me by dingy rooms and sallow 

 faces of disputatious counsel, just as I was drinking in the merry 

 song of the Bulbul, soon to be drowned in monotonous and ever- 

 lasting pleadings, purporting to show cause for and against every- 

 thing in creation, I distinctly saw a female humiUs fly down to her 

 mate off the extremity of one of the lower branches of a huge 

 patriarchal mango-tree. My court was to open at ten, and a great 

 case (all about nothing by the way, simply a vent to the feelings 

 of two irascible bankers wdio were too fat to turn out and fight 

 out their mutual antipathies like men) was to come on. Nine had 

 struck, I had breakfast to get, and I make it a rule as judge (new 

 brooms always sweep clean, my friends say) to be in my seat by the 

 last stroke of the hour ; nevertheless I ran off to the tree like any 

 boy and began to scrutinize the branch. After a minute I saw the 

 eyys, two. in number, exactly over my head, and apparently sus- 



