COLUMBA. 29 



being slender and the soles narrow. The tail is short, scarcely 

 projecting beyond the ends of the closed wings, and measuring 

 half as much as the wing in length or a little more. Sexes alike. 

 Plumage chiefly grey, with distinct black or dusky cross-bars on 

 the secondaries and their coverts. 



The Eock-Pigeous associate in large flocks and mostly make 

 their nests on rocks or buildings. The Stock-Doves make nests in 

 the hollows of trees or in rabbit-burrows. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Neck-feathers with metallic gloss; lower parts 



grey. 

 a'. Bill blackish ; legs red. 



a" . No white band across tail. 



a 3 . Lower back grey like rump C. intermedia, p. 29. 



b 3 . Lower back white C. livia, p. 30. 



b". A white band across tail C. rupestris, p. 30. 



//. Bill and legs yellowish C. eversmanni, p. 31. 



b. Neck and lower parts white, no metallic gloss . C. leuconota, p. 32. 



1292. Columba intermedia. The Indian Slue Rock-Pigeon. 

 Columba intermedia, Strickl. A. M. N. H. xiii. p. 39 (1844) j Blyth, 



Ball, S. F. ii, p. 425 ; iii, p. 203 ; vii, p. 224 ; Hume, N. $ E. p. 499 ; 

 Legge, Birds Ceyl. p. 698 ; Butler, S. F. iv, p. 3 ; Hume $ Dav 

 S. F, vi, p. 419 ; Cripps, 8. F. vii, p. 296 ; Hume, Cat. no. 788 ; 

 Scully, S. F. viii, p. 339 ; Vidal, S. F. ix, p 74 ; Butler, ibid. 

 p. 419 ; Barnes, ibid. p. 457 ; Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, p. 91 Reid 

 S. F. x, p. 59 ; Gates, B. B. ii, p. 288 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 289 

 Hume, S. F. xi, p. 297 ; St. John, Ibis, 1889, p. 173 ; Gates in 

 Humes N. fy E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 344 ; Salvador}, Cat. B. M. xxi 

 p. 259. 



Columba livia, apud Blyth, Cat. p. 233 ; id. Birds Burm. p. 145 

 nee Bonn. 



Kabutar, H. ; Pdrawd, Mahr. ; Gudi pourai, Tel. ; Kovilpura, Tam. 

 Mdda-prda, Tam., Ceylon. 



Coloration. Slaty grey, the neck glossed all round with metallic 

 green, changing to purplish red, the latter prevailing on the upper 

 breast ; back, scapulars, and wings more ashy, no white band on 

 the lower back; ruinp, upper tail-coverts, and tail darker ; two bars 

 of black across the wings, one on the greater coverts, the other 

 formed by the tips of the secondaries, and a broad band on the 

 tertiaries ; tail with the terminal fourth blackish and the basal 

 three-quarters of the outer web in the outermost rectrices white ; 

 axillaries, bases of quills, and inner part of wing-lining white or 

 very pale grey. 



Bill black, with a white mealiness at the tumid base of its upper 

 mandible ; irides brownish orange ; lids bluish white, and legs 

 reddish pink (Blyth). 



