123 CHALCOPHAPS INDICA. 



'^ ChALCOPHAPS INDICA (Liini.). 



" On the 27th of February, at Shuy-wei-sze (Central Hainan), I saw and 

 procured the only specimen of this lovely little Pigeon. It flew up from the 

 ground, and perched on the low branch of a tree. It is an adult male, 

 differing from the skins from India and Ceylon that I have seen, in being of 

 a darker purple on the breast and belly, and in wanting the violet edgings to 

 the feathers of the hind neck ; but in a series of the former I find both the 

 tints of the underparts and the amount of violet on the hind neck variable in 

 intensity and extent ; and I will not attempt to separate the Hainan bird on 

 the peculiarities of a single specimen. Its wing measures 5*85 inches, its 

 tail '4, and its tarsus '92." 



Mr. H. J. Elwes (P. Z. S. 1873, p. 655, " on the Geographical Distribu- 

 tion of Asiatic Birds '') says, of Kashmir, that it is " very poor in bird-life ;" 

 but adds, " Chalcophaps indica extends thus far to the north-west/' 



Again, the same waiter (Ibis, n. s., vol. vi. 1870, p. 528), in his account of 

 the ornithology of the Cardamum Hills of Travancore, speaks of " that lovely 

 bird, Chalcophaps indica,'' as ^' often seen flashing through the trees." 



This species is mentioned by Darwin Q Descent of Man,' voL ii. chap. xvi. 

 p. 185) as an instance where '^the young closely resemble each other, and 

 differ much from their respective adult parents.'' He says: — "The young 

 of many species of Shrikes (^Lanius)^ of some Woodpeckers, and of an Indian 

 Pigeon (Chalcophaps indica^ are transversely striped on the under surface; 

 and certahi allied species or genera, when adult, are similarly marked." 



He takes his authority from Jerdon (vol. iii. p. 485), thus : — " The young 

 are more dusky above, with little green, and barred below, recalling, says 

 Blyth, the colouring of Macropygia.'' 



" The female has the forehead greyish white and the supercilium narrower, 

 the head rufescent, the lower parts browner, and the under tail-coverts more 

 or less ferruginous ; she also w^ants the white shoulder-spot." 



