MYRISTICIVOHA.. 23 



terminal fourth of the tail is brownish grey above ; the chin and 

 throat are white, the rest of the head and neck, with the breast 

 and abdomen are lilac ; the lower abdomen tinged with ochreous ; 

 lower tail-coverts maize, and wing-lining dark slaty grey. 



Bill dull lake-red at the base, slaty at the tip ; orbits lake-red ; 

 irides red-brown ; legs dull lake-red (Jerdon). 



Length about 17 ; tail 7 ; wing 9 ; tarsus 1-2 ; bill from gape 

 1-3. 



Distribution. The hill-ranges near the Malabar coast from 

 Canara to Cape Comorin. 



habits, fyc. Tho?e of the genus. Jerdon, the discoverer of this 

 bird, found it visiting the coast near Cannanore in large numbers 

 during the months of April and May for the purpose of feeding 

 on the buds of Avicennia and other plants peculiar to salt-water 

 swamps. At other times of the year it keeps to the hill-forests, 

 in which it breeds, according to the observations of Messrs. F. W. 

 Bourdillon and I. Macpherson, from March to May, at the same 

 season that Jerdon found it visiting the coast. Davidson took an 

 egg in Canara on February 13th. The nests are of the usutil 

 kind, in small trees, 10 to 15 feet from the ground, and one egg 

 is laid, measuring about 1-73 by 1'29. 



Genus MYEISTICIVORA, Keichenb., 1852. 



This genus is distinguished from all its allies by its extra- 

 ordinary coloration ; white, with parts of the wing and tail 

 black, or, in some species, grey. The tail is shorter than in 

 Carpophaga. Five species are known, ranging from the Andanians 

 and Nicobars to Australia, but only one comes within British 

 Indian boundaries. 



1289. Myristicivora bicolor. The Pied Imperial Pigeon. 



Columba bicolor, Scop. Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr. ii, p. 94 (1786). 

 Carpophaga myristicivora, apud Blyth, J. A. S. B. xv, p. 371 ; 



Beacan, Ibis, 1867, p. 332 ; Ball, J. A. 3. B. xxxix, pt. 2, p. 32 ; 



nee Columba myristicivora, Scop. 

 Carpophaga bicolor, Blyth, Cat. p. 232 ; Feheln, Norara Reue, 



Vd(j. p. 107; Ball, 8. F. i. p. 79; Hume, S. F. ii, p. 264; It/. 



N. $ E. p. 496; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 108; Biyth, Birds 



urm. p. 145; Hume 3* Dav. S. F. \\, p. 418; Hume, Cat. 



no. 781 quint. : Oates, B. B. ii, p. 303 ; id. in Hume's N. $ 77. 



2nd ed. ii, p. 369. 

 M\ ristieivora bicclor, Bonap. Consp. Av. ii. p. 36 ; Walden, 'Irans. 



Z. S. ix, p. 217 ; Salcadori, Cat. B. M. xxi, p. 227. 



Coloration. Creamy white, except the primaries and secondaries 

 (the tertiaries are white), greater primary-coverts, winglet, the 

 terminal half of the median tail-feathers and a gradually dimin- 

 ishing proportion on the outer rectrices, which are black ; the 

 white extends far down the shaft and middle of the outermost 



