CALCENAS . 365 



Subfamily CALCENIN^E. 



Caloenas nicobarica (Linn.). The Hackled Ground-Ply eon. 

 Calcenas nicobarica (Linn.'), Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 798 ter. 



The Nicobar or Hackled Ground-Pigeon, the most lovely species 

 I really think of the whole group, breeds, so far as is yet known 

 for certain, only in one island of the Nicobar cluster. It may breed 

 in other links of that vast chain of islands which stretches down from 

 the Nicobars to New Guinea ; indeed it very probably does, and 

 stragglers may nest on others of the Nicobars ; but its home, its 

 breeding headquarters, which we had the good fortune to discover, 

 are in the little, almost absolutely inaccessible, island of Batty 

 Halve. 



Of this I said in my account of our cruise amongst the Nicobars 

 (' Stray Feathers,' vol. ii, p. 95) : " The island appeared to be 

 almost wholly composed of coral, resting uncoufortnably on a base 

 oi' sandstone. It was low, nearly level, bore a certain amount of 

 high tree -jungle and a few patches of cocoanut, and was in most 

 places covered by an excessively dense undergrowth of some 

 thorny bramble-like shrub, here and there interspersed with a few 

 open plots of grass. The moment the level of the island was 

 gained, the mystery of the black birds was solved they were 

 Nicobar Pigeons, and this w&spar excellence the home and strong- 

 hold of this magnificent bird. Thousands were flying about from 

 tree to tree, or feeding on the seeds of the undergrowth (with 

 which we found their crops mostly full). Their nests were as 

 thick upon the trees as ever nests are in a rookery at home. 

 Young ones in every stage of growth, from naked blind things to 

 birds fully fledged, were to be seen in or alongside the nests. 

 They were perfectly tame at first, and fed about on the ground 

 just like other Doves. Though silent birds as individuals, yet 

 from their immense number their occasional croak, croaTc blended 

 into a continuous murmur heard distinctly above the grinding 

 surf. 



" Hundreds might easily have been shot. As it was the whole 

 party, Native and European, were loaded ; and, despite unavoid- 

 able losses at the time of re-embarking, some seventy were safely 

 brought on board." 



Mr. Davison, who was one of the party, and zealously climbed 

 numbers of the trees to scrutinize the nests more closely, has 

 remarked : " Calcenas nicobarica builds a regular Pigeon's nest, 

 and always on trees ; on Batty Halve, where we found this bird 

 in thousands, almost every thick bushy tree contained several 

 nests. I counted thirteen on one tree, and I must have examined 

 a couple of dozen of these nests. We visited the island rather 



