PALUMBINJE. 287 



Carpophaga aenea, Lin. 



780. 0. sylvatica, TicE^-Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, 

 p. 455. 



THE GREEN IMPERIAL PIGEON. 



Length, 18 to 19 ; expanse, 30 ; wing, 8 to 9 ; tail, 6. 



Bill slaty, red at the base above, and bluish-white at the tip ; jo 

 irides and the nude orbits crimson ; legs lake-red, pale on the 

 soles. 



*Head, neck, and whole under parts, pearl-grey, purer on the 

 crown and breast, and tinged elsewhere, and sometimes on the 

 crown, with ruddy-vinaceous ; back, rump, wings, and tail, shining 

 coppery-green, brightest on the tail, and the quills slaty-grey 

 without, dark blackish-grey within ; under tail-coverts deep 

 chesnut, with which some of the feathers of the vent and flanks 

 are also sprinkled ; chin, orbital feathers and round the base of 

 the bill, white ; axillaries buff. 



Jerdon states in his " Birds of India" that the Green Imperial 

 Pigeon is abundant in Central India, and that he found it breed- 

 ing there in April and May. I have myself never met with it. 



FAMILY, Columbidae. 



Bill horny at the apex only ; tail, in almost all, of twelve 

 feathers ; tarsus lengthened ; feet more fitted for walking on the 

 ground. 



SUB-FAMILY, Palumbinae. 



Feet fitted for perching, the tarsus being somewhat shorter, and 

 the feet more arboreal than in the succeeding groups ; tail some- 

 what longer and more rounded. 



GENUS, Palumbus, Eaup. 



Sides of neck adorned with a patch of light-colored feathers. 



Palumbus casiotis, Bonap. 



784. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 464 ; Murray's Verte- 

 brate Zoology of Sind, p. 201. 



THE HIMALAYAN CUSHAT. 



Length, 17 ; expanse, 30 ; wing, 10'25 ; tail, 7 ; bill at front, 

 075. 



Bill orange, whitish at base ; irides yellow ; feet red. 



Above brownish-grey ; the head, cheeks, rump, and upper 

 tail-coverts, pure ashy ; nape, sides of neck, and shoulders 

 glossed with changeable green and purple ; on each side 

 of the neck a large patch of fulvous or clayey-cream 

 color ; edge of the wing, and a white longitudinal bar, formed 

 by the outer edges of the primaries, white ; winglet and primary- 

 coverts blackish ; tail grey at the base, blackish at the tip ; 

 beneath, the throat is pure ashy, the foreneck and breast 



