468 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



instead of white, in the crown being tinged with vinaceous, in the 

 winglet having less black, and in the grey band of the tail, conspi- 

 cuous in the European bird, being barely discernible in the Indian. 



The Indian Stock-pigeon was discriminated, some years back, by 

 Mr. Blyth, who has since considered it identical with Bonaparte's 

 bird described from Western and Central Asia. It has been 

 noticed in India, in Sindh, where found by Major Boys, and it 

 doubtless occurs throughout various other districts of Northern 

 India. It flies in pretty large flocks, and affects trees. A corre- 

 spondent of the Bengal Sporting Review states that he saw them 

 in hundreds at Hansi in March, ' but they soon disappeared. 

 They feed in the fields, morning and evening, and roost in the day 

 (and I suppose the night also) in trees, generally in the common 

 Babul trees. To Europeans here (at Hansi) they are known as the 

 Hill-pigeons.' They are probably migratory in India, breeding 

 in Central Asia. Buchanan Hamilton, however, states that a wild 

 Blue-pigeon breeds in Gorukpore in old plantations, and is a great 

 consumer of grain. He, however, considered it the same as ' one 

 that breeds on rocks on the banks of the Jumna and other places,' 

 i. e. the common Blue-pigeon. They have most likely been fre- 

 quently overlooked by sportsmen and others considering them 

 simply to be the same as the common wild Blue-pigeon, Col. inter- 

 media, and I have observed at various stations certain flocks of 

 Pigeons always settling during the day on trees. It is a much smaller 

 bird, however, than the common Blue-pigeon of this country, whilst 

 its analogue in Europe, P. cenas, is larger than the wild Kock-pigeon, 

 C. livia. 



The European bird, P. cenas, says Blyth, is called the Stock- 

 pigeon, because it commonly builds in wood-land districts, in a 

 cavity of some old, and often ivy-clad, pollard-stock, thus forming 

 neither a platform nest like the Cushat, nor resorting to rocks like 

 C. livia ; but in more open country it resorts much to the deserted 

 holes in Rabbit burrows, or it nestles under thick furze bushes. It 

 is a winter bird of passage in England, supporting itself chiefly by 

 beech-mas];, and delighting to roost in the tallest beeches. The 

 habits of our Indian species appear to be somewhat similar. 



