Genus CEOCOPUS*. 

 Bill short, stout, very deep for its length, the soft base occupying about a third of the 

 length of the culmen, which is boldly curved at the tip ; gonys deep. The longer primaries very 

 much pointed ; the 3rd quill with a large sinuationf . Tail moderately long, rounded at the tip. 

 Tarsus short, stout, feathered for a third of its length ; middle toe longer than the tarsus ; outer 

 toe considerably longer than the inner ; claws deep and curved. 



CEOCOPUS CHLORIGASTER. 



(THE SOUTHERN GREEN PIGEON.) 



Treron chlorigaster, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1840, xii. p. 167 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 229 



(1S49); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 130 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 



1854, xiv. p. 57. 

 Treron jerdoni, Strickland, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1844, p. 167. 

 Crocopus chlorigaster, Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 448 (1S64) ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 465 ; 



Adam, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 390; Ball, ibid. 1874, p. 423; Hume, Nests and Eggs, iii. 



p. 492 (1875) ; Butler & Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 2 ; Fairbank, t. c. p. 261, et 1877, 



p. 408 ; Ball, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 224. 

 The Large Green Pigeon, Kelaart. 

 Hurrial, Hind. ; Pacha-guwa, Telugu ; Pacha-pora, Tamil (Jerdon) ; Patchi-praa, Ceylonese 



Tamils (Layard). 



Adult male (Behar). Length to forehead (from skin) 11-75 inches ; wing 7 - 25 to 7 - 4 ; tail 5-0 ; tarsus 0'S ; middle 

 toe 1*05 ; bill to gape (straight) 0-95. 



Female (" Madras "). Wing 6-7 inches ; tail 4-3. 



Jerdon gives the wing at " barely 7 inches ; tail 4- 75." 



Iris carmine, with a blue inner circle ; bill whitish ; legs and feet chrome-yellow. 



Forehead, entire top and the sides of the head, including the ear-coverts, dusky bluish grey, changing on the lores 

 and lower cheeks into the impure green of the chin and throat ; fore neck and chest olive-yellow, passing in a 

 broad collar round the hind neck, beneath which there passes across the lower hind neck a collar of paler bluish 

 grey than the head ; back, scapulars, rump, upper tail-coverts, tertials, and wing-coverts yellowish olive-green, 

 with a slaty tinge on the upper tail-coverts ; point of the wing and adjoining portion of the lesser wing-coverts 

 lilac ; greater wing-coverts slaty green, with yellowish-white edges and tips ; primaries and secondaries slaty 

 brown, edged outwardly with yellow, except towards the tips of the longer primaries ; tail slate-colour, the central 

 feathers at the base and the remainder on the inner webs at the base tinged with green ; breast yellowish green, 

 slaty on the flanks, and changing into yellow on the abdomen ; thighs yellow ; under tail-coverts greyish crimson, 



* The " Green Pigeons " are removed by Jerdon from the larger Pigeons (Carpophagina;) and placed in a separate 

 subfamily (Treronina 1 ). Both are, however, essentially Fruit-Pigeons, and have precisely the same habits. The dis- 

 tinctions pointed out, which consist in the thicker bill and shorter tail, are, in my opinion, only generic. I have, moreover, 

 throughout my work {which is intended solely for the benefit of students of ornithology in Ceylon) avoided a complication 

 <>f the subject by not taking SM&families into consideration more than I could possibly help. 



t This is only fully developed when the bird is adult. I have a young example of Osmotreron pompadora in which 

 there is only an indication of it ; and the same holds good with other species of this group I have examined in the British 

 Museum. It is, however, absent in Sphenocercus, the Kokla Green Pigeon, a curious Himalayan form with a pointed wedge- 

 shaped tail. 



