466 birds of india. 



The Neilgherry Wood-pigeon. 



Descr. — Above, the head and neck ashy; nuchal patch black, 

 with small white tips ; back of neck beyond this, and interscapulars 

 cupreous ruddy, with some green reflections ; rest of the upper 

 plumage ruddy-brown, becoming dark-ashy on the rump and 

 upper tail-coverts ; the wings dusky, the lesser coverts mostly 

 ruddy-cupreous, and the other coverts and quills, which are 

 dusky black, more or less edged with the same, and the outer 

 primaries conspicuously pale edged ; tail dull black ; beneath ashy, 

 albescent on the throat, the neck and breast glossed with green, 

 and the lower abdomen and vent albescent. 



Bill and orbits deep red, the former with a yellow tip ; irides 

 ochre-yellow; legs and feet dull red. Length 15 to 16 inches; 

 extent 25; wing 8 to 8£ ; tail 5| to 6. Weight about 12 to 13 oz. 



The Neilgherry Wood-pigeon or Imperial-pigeon, as it is some- 

 times called by residents on those hills, is found on the higher 

 elevations of the Western Ghats, probably on the M ahableshwar 

 hills, as well as on the Neilgherries, in which locality alone I 

 have observed it, at a height ranging from 6,000 to 8,000 feet and 

 upwards. It ought to be found in Coorg; but has not, I believe, 

 been recorded from elsewhere. On the Neilgherries, it frequents 

 the sholas or dense woods, singly, or in small parties of five or 

 six, feeding on various fruit and buds, and occasionally on small 

 snails, to procure which it descends to the mossy banks, and I 

 have, now and then, seen it on the ground outside a wood. I 

 frequently found some small Bulimi in the crops of those I 

 examined. Colonel Sykes states it to be a rare bird in the Deccan, 

 and only found in the dense woods of the Ghats. 



A very closely allied race or species occurs in Ceylon, and has 

 been named Palumbus Torringtonii by Kelaart. It differs from 

 the Neilgherry bird in having the back and wings plain dark 

 slaty, without a trace of the ruddy margining to the feathers ; 

 the head and neck are strongly tinged with vinaceous, with a 

 whiter throat ; and in some other points. 



The genus Janthoenas, Heichenbach, is appropriated by Bonaparte, 

 for certain richly metallic Pigeons from the Oceanic region, which 

 are placed among the Carpophaga by Gray ; unci Trocaza 



