414 The Plover-like Birds 



and enjoy a very wide but exclusively Old World distribution, being especially 

 abundant in Africa, southeastern Asia, and the islands of the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago, with a few extending to Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. They 

 may be known from the other members of the suborder by the rather short 

 legs in which the tarsi are generally shorter than the middle toe, and feathered 

 for more than half their length, while the soles of the feet are very broad, each 

 toe having the skin expanded on the sides. With the exception of two or three 

 genera the tail is composed of fourteen feathers. 



Green Pigeons. The present subfamily, as above stated, may be divided 

 into three fairly well marked groups, in the first of which, the so-called Green 

 Pigeons (Treronince}, the bill is relatively thick and the general plumage green, 

 relieved for the most part with a band of yellow on the wings. The first that we 

 may consider are the Wedge-tailed Green Pigeons (Sphenocercus), so called from 

 the fact that the tail is wedge-shaped, with the central feathers usually more or 

 less pointed. Eight species are now known, these ranging from northern India 

 to Japan and through Burma to Java. The only one that we may mention, which 

 may be taken as typical of the others, is the so-called Kokla (5. sphenurus}, a 

 bird about thirteen inches in length, in which the central tail-feathers are rela- 

 tively short and not acuminate. It has the general greenish yellow plumage of 

 the group and is distinguished from the nearest related forms by the fact that the 

 under tail-coverts are of a uniform lighter gray instead of black. According to 

 Hume the Kokla breeds throughout the outer ranges of the Himalayas south of 

 the first Snowy Range, at elevations of from 4000 to 7000 feet, coming in April 

 and leaving by or before November, migrating often in immense numbers, to 

 the eastward. The nest is a slight platform of sticks usually placed in high forest 

 trees, and the eggs are the usual two and pure white. It feeds on fruits and 

 berries, a continued supply of which it seeks in the warm countries whither it 

 migrates. 



In the next three genera the feathers of the tail are nearly even, or with the 

 outer ones very little shorter than the others, while the third primary is always 

 scooped out on the inner web. Of these the genus Vinago with eight species is 

 entirely confined to Africa, ranging from Senegambia and Abyssinia to the Cape 

 and also Madagascar. The various species may be known by the conspicuously 

 yellow feathers of the legs, while in addition some of them have the forehead more 

 or less naked. 



The Indian Green Pigeons (Crocopus) of the Indo-Chinese countries agree 

 with the last in the form of the tail and the yellowish leg-feathers, but differ in 

 having the first three primaries more or less pointed. Of the three species the 

 Bengal Green Pigeon (C. phosnicopterus\ a bird about twelve and one half 

 inches in length, has the plumage greenish and grayish, with a well-defined green 

 band at the base of the tail. Although found to some extent in various parts of 

 India, it is only at home in Bengal, while the Green-fronted Pigeon (C. viridifrons), 

 a similar but slightly larger species, is found throughout India and Cochin China, 

 being replaced in the Indian peninsula and Ceylon by the Southern Green Pigeon 

 (C. chlorogaster}. The Indo-Chinese countries are also the home of another 



