274 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



then perch, usually high up, but sometimes low down, invaria- 

 bly on the thicker horizontal branches, along which I have 

 often seen them walk. On Batty Malve I had the best oppor- 

 tunity of observing them. I had wandered some distance 

 away from the rest of our party, and got into a part of the 

 jungle where the birds had not been disturbed ; feeling very 

 tired when forcing my way through the tangled underwood, I 

 seated myself at the foot of a large tree; after remaining here 

 for some little time, several of these birds flew down from the 

 adjacent trees and settled on the ground within ten yards of 

 me, they were soon joined by others, till there must have been 

 at least thirty, old and young, all around me, I remained per- 

 fectly still (hardly daring to breathe) and watched them for 

 some time. 



" Their gait is quite pigeon-like, every now and then one 

 would stop, and tossing the leaves aside, dig into the ground 

 with its bill ; they did not move in any regular manner, but 

 walked hither and thither, and if two adults, or two young ones 

 met, they generally made a peck or two at each other before 

 separating. I did not observe them use their feet to scratch 

 aside the leaves, like gallinaceous birds, nor did I see any of 

 the adults run, they kept to a steady but sprightly walk the 

 whole time. Occasionally a young one would rush up with out- 

 spread wings to one of its neighbours, and then stand with 

 open mouth flapping its wings till it was either beaten off, or 

 the other beat a retreat, but I did not see any of the young 

 fed by their parents. They are very silent birds, and the only 

 note I heard was a somewhat hoarse guttral kind of croak, 

 not unlike that sometimes made by a domestic pigeon when 

 taken in the hand. 



" There is apparently no authentic information on record of 

 the breeding of this species, and the surmises that I have 

 seen in regard to this subject are quite inaccurate. For instance, 

 in l Oassell's Book of Birds' translated from the text of 

 Dr. Brehm, I find under the head of The hackled ground 

 •pigeon ( Caloenas nicobarica) the following statement : — i We are 

 without particulars respecting the incubation of this pigeon, 

 except that like the partridge, it builds its nest upon the ground.' 

 This of course is quite inaccurate. Calcenas nicobarica builds a 

 regular pigeon's nest and always on trees ; on Batty Malve 

 where we found this bird in thousands, almost every thick 

 bushy tree contained several nests. I counted thirteen on one 

 tree, and I must have examined a couple of dozen of these 

 nests ; we visited the island rather late, nearly all the occupied 



