1907 J LT.-COL. N. MANDERS ON MAYER's PIGEON, 801 



G. Notes on Mayer's Pigeon (JS^escenas maijeri). 

 By Lieut.-Colonel N. Manders, F.Z.S. 



[Received August 8, 1907.] 



This bird is now so nearly approaching extinction, that it is 

 pei'haps advisable to put on I'ecord all available information 

 regarding its distribution and habits, and I have therefore com- 

 piled a few notes embodying all I know and have ascertained 

 from other persons about this bird, which may be interesting to 

 ornithologists and naturalists generally. 



Before the indigenous forests were lai'gely destroj^ed it was 

 probably abundant all over the island of Mauritius, but its range 

 has become gradually more and more circumscribed, until at the 

 present day it is entirely confined to a small range of forest-clad 

 hills in the south-western corner of the island known as the 

 Savanne district, comprising a country some eight miles from east 

 to west and fi-om two to three from north to south. The hills 

 rise abruptly from the sea-coast to an elevation varying from a 

 thousand to nearly two thousand feet, thence extending to a 

 plateau covered now with light scrub jungle which stretches north- 

 wards at a gradually decreasing elevation to the central plain, 

 which is now entirely under cultivation. I have never observed 

 the bird in this scrub jungle, and it only visits it at a certain 

 period of the year, under conditions to which I shall subsequently 

 allude. 



For administrative purposes this range of hills is divided up 

 into the following forest districts, all nearly continuous and in all 

 of which the bird is found : — Les Mares, and Grand Bassin, where 

 it is most common ; Calbot, Kanaka, Coutanceau and Dayot ; a 

 few at Charmarel ; and I have once seen it at Morne Brabant in 

 the extreme south-western corner of the island. 



The character of these forests is much the same ; they are very 

 thick and almost impenetrable owing to the multitude of seedlings 

 and young trees, which are allowed by an inefficient Forest 

 Department to grow up and choke each other by their tangled 

 growth. There is a singular absence of large trees, one of three 

 feet in diameter is rare, and these usually show signs of incipient 

 decay. For six months in the year the rainfall is very heavy, 

 sometimes it rains continuously for days, making the woods almost 

 one vast swamp. Under these circumstances it is frequently 

 difficult to get near the birds to observe their habits ; it requires 

 patience and a disregard for one's personal comfoit. 



In the early morning shortly after sunrise they come out and 

 sun themselves, and their " wlaoo " " whoo " may be heard at a 

 considerable distance. My friend M. Georges Antelme, who has 

 probably a more extensive acquaintance with it than any other 

 naturalist, gives it as his opinion that the number of birds still 

 existing does not exceed one hundred and fifty pairs, and from my 

 own frequent rambles through these forests in the last two and a 



