370 



Subfamily TRERONIN^E. 



Treron nepalensis (Hodgs.). The Thick-billed Green Pigeon. 



Treron nipalensis (Hodgs. \ Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 445 ; Hume, Cat. 

 no. 771. 



Major C. T. Bingham writes from Tenasserim : " Not a rare 

 bird in the Thoungyeen, but less common than Osmotreronpliaydi. 



" I found several nests of this bird, which breeds in the Thoun- 

 pyeen forests, throughout the end of February and the whole of 

 March. My first four nests were all found in one day, and all 

 were little platforms of straw on horizontally-growing bamboos, 

 containing each a couple of unfledged young. This was on the 

 3rd March. Again on the 22nd March I got a nest similarly 

 placed, with two eggs so hard-set that I failed to save them. 



" The only other egg I got was on the 28th March, near Yok 

 village in the Meplay district. It was placed in the usual flimsy 

 nest in the fork of a small tree about 10 feet above the ground, 

 and was pure white in colour and perfectly fresh. I procured the 

 female to make certain." 



The only egg of this species that I have seen, sent me by Major 

 Bingham, seemed rather small for the size of the bird. It was of 

 the usual Green-Pigeon-type, with a tendency to be pointed at 

 both ends, pure white in colour, and moderately glossy. It 

 measures 1-13 by 0'89. 



Crocopus phcenicopterus (Lath.). The Bengal Green Pigeon. 



Crocopus phcenicopterus (Lath.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 447 ; Hume, 

 Rouyh Draft N. $ E. no. 772. 



The Bengal Green Pigeon, though found as a straggler in the 

 eastern portions of the Punjab and Kajpootana, and somewhat 

 more commonly almost throughout the Central and North-western 

 Provinces and Oudh, is really at home only in Bengal and the 

 tongue of Bengal-like country that runs up under the Himalayas 

 westward to the Jumna ; everywhere else the so-called southern 

 species, C. clilorig aster, is much more abundant. 



Following, I suppose, Dr. Jerdon, Mr. Wallace, in his article on 

 the Pigeons of the Malay Archipelago, gives C. phcenicopterus from 

 Northern India and China, and C. chloric/aster from Ceylon and 

 the Indian Peninsula. As a matter of fact, C. clilorigaster is fully 

 as common in Upper India, and in most places far more common 

 than G. phosnicopterus. In the North-west Provinces both species 

 associate in the same flock, C. chloric/ 'aster being, as far as my 

 experience goes, most numerous. Out of sixty odd shot in three 

 days in the Etawah District in March 1866 only nine belonged to 

 the so-called Northern Indian type, and seven shot near Hansi 

 (Punjab) in December 1867 were all C. chloric/aster. Eastwards of 



