HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



when on a trip with my friend T. Y. Wright, 1 our camp 

 was clean out of meat. We were after bears in August, 

 the close season for deer, so we looked around for pigeons. 

 We soon found some fruit trees to which the orange-breasts 

 were coming in numbers, and tried at first to pick them off 

 as they flew, but the country was not open enough, so our 

 success was small. We then took our stand near the fruit 

 trees, and went in for " potting " with such success that in 

 about a quarter of an hour or less we had bagged 24 birds, 

 to the huge delight of our coolies, who are rather fond of 

 game-bird curry, and we ourselves thoroughly appreciated 

 our dinner that night. 



The pompadour green pigeon (Osmotreron pompadora). 

 Also a fruit-eating pigeon, common to all forest and well- 

 wooded parts of Ceylon low country. 



Length 10.3 to 10.6 inches; bill green; legs and feet 

 purple-red. 



Forehead and face greenish-yellow, blending into purer 

 yellow on the throat, and ashy-blue on crown and nape ; ashy- 

 green on hind neck ; upper back and most of wing coverts 

 maroon ; lower back and central tail feathers dull green. 



Female : not quite so yellow, and wanting the maroon 

 mantle. 



This is perhaps the most toothsome of all our pigeons, 

 besides being a very handsome little bird. Its habits are about 

 the same as the orange-breast, but it is if anything shyer 

 and more difficult to get a shot at flying, though they may 

 be killed in numbers during the fruiting season, in the trees 

 they feed on. Their call is a most melodious whistle, easily 

 imitated, and by which natives often lure them to perch on 

 a tree under which they lie concealed to shoot them. 



1 Now Lieut.-Col. T. Y. Wright, Officer Commanding Ceylon Planters' 

 Rifle Corps. 



22 



