GREEN PIGEONS 127 



bars. The lower parts are slate-coloured tinged 

 with green, save for the feathers of the thigh, which 

 are canary yellow. The legs are orange yellow. 

 The eye is blue, with an outer ring of carmine. Yet, 

 notwithstanding all this show of colour, there is 

 nothing gaudy about the green pigeon. Every tint 

 is most delicately laid on, and each hue blends into 

 the surrounding ones in a truly exquisite fashion, 

 so that it is no exaggeration to call the green pigeon 

 a vision of perfect loveliness. 



In the unlikely event of any one taking the trouble 

 to compare the above description with those given 

 in the fauna of British India for Crocopus phcenicopterus 

 (the Bengal green pigeon) and C. Morogaster (the 

 Southern green pigeon), that person will observe 

 that it does not tally exactly with either of them. 

 Nevertheless, my description is taken from a specimen 

 shot by me in the Basti district of the United Pro- 

 vinces. The fact of the matter is that in places where 

 the Bengal form meets the southern species the 

 two interbreed, as, I believe, do all, or nearly all, 

 allied species at the point of junction. And, in such 

 cases, the hybrid birds appear to be perfectly fertile 

 and to thrive equally with the parent species ; neither 

 of which would be the case were facts in accordance 

 with the Wallaceian theory. But, as we shall see 

 later, green pigeons seem to lay themselves out to 

 destroy the biological orthodoxy of to-day. 



Green pigeons appear to live exclusively on fruit. 

 They go about in small flocks, seeking out trees of 

 which the fruit is ripe ; when they hit upon such a 



