726 OSMOTREEON BICFNCTA. 



Two South-Indian specimens in the national collection measure in the wing 6-2 and 6'3 inches respectively. I 

 have not met with any Northern-Indian examples; but on the other side of the Bay 1 find, from published data, 

 that still larger measurements prevail. Dr. Armstrong records his specimens from the Irrawaddy delta as 

 having a length of 11-5 to 12-0 inches, and measuring in the wing G-l to 6-5 ; this is again exceeded in Tenas- 

 serim by Mr. Hume's measurements, which range as high as 6-75 in the wing. On the other hand, with regard 

 to Ceylonese specimens, I must remark that I measured and preserved far too few examples of this species, inasmuch 

 as they were often transferred to my cook instead of to my taxidermist. As to variation in plumage, the lilac band 

 and orange chest-patch in South-Indian birds are very much the same as in ours ; the tint of the latter is perhaps 

 slightly more rufous : in one specimen from South India the throat is yellower than in any of mine. In a female 

 from India I observe that the slaty colour of the hind neck is more extensive, and the upper surface slightly 

 greener than in my specimens, while the lower parts are not so yellow. 



0. i < mans differs in having the vinous collar in the male extending round the hind neck ; the head and throat are 

 slaty and the upper tail-coverts a pronounced rusty colour ; under tail-coverts deep cinnamon-red in the male, 

 and creamv white in the female, washed with cinnamon-red as in 0. Licineta. The female has no ash-colour on 

 the hind neck. Dimensions : — Siam, wing 5-9 ; Makassar, wing 5-7 ; Sarawak, wing 5-3. Tenasserim, <S , wing 5-75 

 to 6-05 (Hume). 



O.phayn i I have not seen : but Mr. Hume, in his diagnostical table of these Pigeons (Str. Feath. 1875, p. 162), gives, 

 as distinguishing marks, the grey forehead, crown, and occiput, and the red mantle in the male, and the clear 

 bluish-grey head and green central tail-feathers in the female. Dimensions : — Tenasserim, wing 3 6-0 to 6-25, 

 $ 6-0 to 6- 1 . 



Distribution. — This handsome Fruit-Pigeon is more or less common all round the coast of Ceylon. In 

 the northern and wilder half of the island and in the south-east, where the sea-hoard is clothed with jungle, it is 

 found close to the coast and is very abundant there ; but in the Western Province and south-west it is princi- 

 pally located in the wooded country at the back of the cocoanut cultivation, and in these parts it extends 

 further inland than in the above-mentioned. It is common in the Rayigam and Kuruwite Korales and iu 

 parts of Saffragam ; and I have likewise met with it in valleys in the neighbourhood of Morowaka, but it is not 

 so numerous there as lower down near the sea-coast. I have procured it about Kuruncgala and in the Seven 

 K orales, but not in such abuudance as the next species, which is more forest-loving. At Uswewa, in the interior 

 of the Puttalam district, Mr. Parker says it is found, and likewise about Anaradhapura. Layard states that he 

 not meet with it in the extreme north, but that he killed a few specimens in the Patchellepally district. 



In India the distribution of this Pigeon is somewhat peculiar. It is not found at all in the western parts 

 of Upper India. Mr. Hume has the following outline of its habitat in ' Nests and Eggs,' vol. iii. ; he says, 

 " It is entirely unknown in Kandeish, Guzerat, Kattiawar, Sindh, the Punjab, Rajpootana, and the North- 

 west Provinces, and is only known in the sub-Himalayan terais of Behar and Oudh, and the eastern forest- 

 regions of the Central Provinces. It is a purely Indo-Burmese type, not to be found, I think, in India out of 

 the 60 inches rainfall regions, and, excluding Assam, Cachar, &c., is not, I believe, to be found over more than 

 one third of India proper." 



I do not find it recorded by many observers in South India, but I have seen specimens from the Carnatic. 

 In the hills, where it is not to be expected that it would be found, it is seemingly replaced by O. malabarica, 

 which is noticed as being found in the Travancore hills, in the Palanis, and in the Khandala ranges. Mr. Ball, 

 on the testimony of Capt. Beavan, records it from Manbhum ; the latter gentleman writes, in ' The Ibis/ 1868, 

 that he found it in some abundance in the hilly forest-covered parts of that district, especially near Ambeka- 

 nuggur and among the Jubee hills, where he noticed a flock of five or six. Mr. Cripps does not record it 

 from Furreedpore, nor does Mr. Inglis from Cachar ; but in the latter district it is said by Jerdou and Mr. Hume 

 to be found. It inhabits portions of Pegu, and in the Irrawaddy delta is said to be abundant by Dr. Armstrong, 

 more particularly in the evergreen forests between Elephant Point and China Ba-keer. He also says that it 

 occurs in tolerable abundance in thin tree-jungle and hedges on the borders of forest land. In Tenasserim it 

 is common throughout the Provinces, except in the higher hills; and lower down the peninsula I suspect it is 

 entirely replaced by O. vernans, which is confined to the southernmost part of Tenasserim. 



Habits. — The Orange-breasted Fruit-Pigeon affects low jungle, the outskirts of forest, detached rows of 

 trees in open country, and sundry other localities where any of its favourite fruits abound. It associates in 



