THE BIRDS OF NORTH CACHAE. 361 



Sub-family Macropygiince. 

 (412) Macropygia tdsalia.— The Bar-tailed Tree Dove. 

 Hume, No. 791. 

 This bird is very common in North Cachar, but not so much so in the 

 plains at any distance from the hills, though during the cold weather 

 it is plentiful all along the foot of the hills, frequenting the mustard 

 fields and other crops. It seems to be a silent bird except during the 

 breeding season, when it is just as noisy as it is quiet at other times. 

 Its call consists of a loud, very deep coo, more like the note of an im- 

 perial pigeon than that of a dove. 



It breeds in great numbers at and about Hungram, making a rather 

 stoutly built nest of twigs, sometimes with a rough lining of grass, but 

 most often with none at all It may be placed on a small sapling only a 

 few feet from the ground or else in a good sized tree as much as thirty 

 feet from it. The males appear to carry on the business of incubation 

 far more than the females, most of the. birds I have caught on the nest 

 being of the former sex. 



They lay either a single oigg or else two, generally the latter. They 

 are of two very distinct types, though intermediate forms may be met 

 with. 



The first is a long oval decidedly pointed at one end, though not 

 much compressed, and the second is the normal dove shape, only being 

 of a rather longer oval than usual. The colour ranges from a buff, so 

 pale as to appear white unless contrasted with real white, to a rather 

 warm tint of cafd au lait. Strange to say, the finst type of eo-g men- 

 tioned is almost invariably darker than the second. 



My eggs are from 1*27" to 1-49" in length and from -90" to I'OS" 

 in breadth. 



They lay in May, June and July, sometimes as early as April. 

 Sub-family Phapidince, 

 (413) Chalcophaps indica. — The Emerald Dove. 

 Hume^ No. 798. 



A fairly common bird in suitable localities up to about 2,500 feet, 

 more rare above that height, though I have seen it at Guilang, nearly 

 4,000 feet up. 



