THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 265 



we were there in March ; but the Lighthouse-keeper told us 

 that in Table Island he had often shot dozens, and a month 

 later when Davison visited the Cocos he found them abun- 

 dant. At Narcondam they were very numerous, and in the 

 jungle clad sea-face of the exterior crater of Barren Island we 

 saw a good many. 



The following are the dimensions of this species recorded 

 in the flesh; there is no difference in the size of the sexes, or 

 indeed in the plumage, except that some of the males are 

 more strongly tinged with yellow than any of the females : — 



Length, 16 to 17 ; expanse, 27*5 to 30; wing, 8*82 to 95; 

 tail, from vent, 5*12 to 5*5; tarsus, 1*10 to 1*3 ; bill, from 

 gape, 1'4 to 1*5; bill, at front, 0*9 to 1*05; wings, when 

 closed, reach to within from 1*5 to 1*75 of end of tail; weight, 

 from 12 ozs. to 1 lb. 



Legs and feet pale smalt blue, (what does Bonaparte mean 

 by " pedibus nigricantibus"?) The bill is leaden blue; the tip 

 darkish horny or dark plumbeous ; irides dark brown. 



The winglet, primaries, and secondaries, the terminal one- 

 half of the central tail feathers, and a smaller portion of each 

 succeeding pair, black. The terminal three-fourths of the outer 

 web of the external pair of all also mostly black, only a certain 

 portion of this web next the shaft being white, the white portion 

 increasing in breadth towards the comparatively narrow black 

 tipping, which in this feather is only about half an inch 

 deep, against an inch and a half in the next pair, and two and 

 a half in the central pair. The anti-penultimate pair have a 

 narrow black margin for about three quarters of an inch to the 

 white portion of the outer web immediately below the black 

 tip ; on the inner web of the outer tail feathers, the black tipping 

 is very slanting, running from half to one inch further down 

 on the inner margin of the inner web, than at the shaft. The 

 whole of the rest of the bird everywhere is white, with a deli- 

 cate yellow creamy tinge, very strongly marked in the fresh 

 bird, but fading much in the dried skin ; this tint is always 

 strongest on the head and there it fades least, so that in the dry 

 skin the contrast between the buffy yellow head, and the almost 

 white back is much stronger than in life ; next to the head the 

 tint is strongest about the vent, lower tail coverts and the base 

 of the primaries, and on these latter also it fades comparatively 

 little. 



Davison says : — " This haudsome pigeon, though occurring in 

 some localities in almost incredible numbers, is not nearly so 

 generally distributed throughout the islands as C. insularis, I did 



