30 COLUMBID-E. 



Length about 13 ; tail 5 ; wing 9 ; tarsus 1-2 ; bill from gape 1. 



Distribution. Throughout India and Ceylon, except in forest or 

 on high hills, ranging west to Southern Persia and east to China 

 and Japan ; rare in Burma, wanting in Tenasi-erira and probably 

 in Pegu, but found in Upper Burma. 



Habits, $c. A bird haunting rocky cliffs, old buildings, walls, 

 and, when encouraged, human habitations generally, nesting in all 

 the places named and, in Western and North- western India espe- 

 cially, in wells. Tim Indian Pigeon is most common in cultivated 

 country, and feeds on grain and seed*. It is, as Blyth has shown, 

 the wild species, from which the numerous breeds of domestic 

 pigeons, peculiar to India, are derived. Pigeons are generally 

 protected by natives of India, both Hindus and Mahomedans ; 

 in Bajputana they are regarded as almost sacred birds and no one 

 is allowed to kill them. They breed in Northern India from 

 December to May, later in the south, and lay two eggs in a hole 

 in a cliff, wall, temple, tomb, or \vell. Eggs measure 1-45 by 1*12. 



1293. Columba livia. The Blue Rock-Pigeon. 



Columba livia, Bonnaterre, Encycl. Meth. i, p. 227 (1790); Blyth, 

 ("at. p. 233 pt. ; Hume, S. F. i, p. 218 ; Cripps, S. F. vii, p. 296 ; 



Columba neg'lecta, Hume, Lah. to Yark. p. 272 (1873). 



Coloration. This, the Blue Bock-Pigeon or Eock-Dove of 

 Europe, differs from the Indian C. intermedia only in having the 

 lower back (not, as sometimes stated, the rump) white. Usually, 

 too, the general tint is paler. 



Distribution. The Western Palacarctic region, with Afghanistan, 

 Baluchistan, Sind, the Punjab, Kashmir, and occasionally other 

 parts of Northern India. The birds found in North-western 

 India are usually intermediate between the two races, and have a 

 comparatively narrow white or whitish band on the lower back, 

 riot a broad band like European birds. 



1294. Columba rupestris. The Blue Hill- Pigeon. 



Columba cenas, var. 8 rupestris, Pall. Zooyr. Rosso-Asiat. i, p, 560 



(1811). 

 Columba rupestris, Bonap. Consp. Av. ii, p. 48 (]854) ; Moore. 



P. Z. S. 1859, p. 400 : Jcrdon, B. 1. iii, p. 470 ; Stoliczka, J. A. 8. B. 



xxxvii, pt. 2. p. 66 ; Hume, Cat. no. 789; Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, 



p. 92 : Scully, ibid. p. 584 : C. H. T. Marshall, Ibis, 1884, p. 421 ; 



Sharpe, Yarkand Miss., Aves, p. 116; Salvadori, Cat. B. M. xxi. 



p. 250. 



Columba livia, var., Adams, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 497 ; 1859, p. 187. 

 Columba rupicola, apud Hume fy Renders. Lah. to Yark. p. 273 ; 



Scully, S. F. iv, p. 1 76. 



Coloration very similar to that of C. livia ; but the upper 



