OSMOTEEEON BICINCTA. 727 



small parties, as a rale, but collects in large flocks on trees which are in heavy fruit. Its favourite food 

 consists of the berries of the Bo, Banyan, Palu, and Poppalille trees ; on these it feeds with such avidity that 

 it will return to the trees very shortly after being shot at. Its flight is swift; and when returning from its 

 feeding-grounds in a continuous stream at evening-time it affords good shooting, as it crosses the roads in the 

 northern and eastern jungles. This and the next species are much shot by the natives who possess guns ; they 

 take up their position beneath some fruit-bearing monarch of the forest, and shoot the Pigeons as they fly in 

 to feed in the mornings. It has a regular time, like other Fruit-Pigeons and Doves, for drinking, which 

 is about seven in the morning and four in the afternoon. The flesh of this species is succulent and well- 

 flavoured ; but it is not so delicate as that of the next bird. Its note is a hoarse croak, repeated at intervals, 

 but it is usually a silent bird. 



In the south of Ceylon I found that they fed much on wild dates ; an example I shot near Galle had its 

 crop almost extended to bursting with this fruit. They are fond of frequenting hedges of fruit-bearing trees 

 in open land ; and I have often seen them frequenting rows of the common " Caduru ■"-tree, although there 

 can be nothing, of course, in the large nauseous fruit of that tree to tempt them. 



Layard, who was under the impression that it only fed on berries from the highest trees (it is frequently 

 found feeding on quite low trees), remarks as follows concerning it : — " Vast numbers are killed in the southern 

 and western provinces by noticing what trees are in fruit, and watching at their foot for the birds, which are 

 continually going and coming. It, however, feeds so silently and moves so seldom, that it requires much 

 skill to detect a single bird out of a flock of fifty or sixty ; and on the least alarm, which is communicated from 

 one to another by a plaintive whistle*, they all dart off the tree as by magic; frequently, on firing at a bird 

 which exposed itself, I have brought down seven or eight others which I could not see." 



Captain Beavan found it feeding generally in Manbhum on the pulpy orange-coloured fruit of the 

 Strychnos nux-vomica, which grows abundantly there and affords sustenance to many wild Pigeons. 



Nidiftcation. — I believe this Pigeon breeds for the most part in May and June, but that it also nests as 

 late as August. Layard writes that " it forms a nest in the month of May, of sticks, with a very slight lining 

 of roots, &c, in the fork of a tree, and deposits two shining white eggs : axis 14 lines (1T8) ; diameter 10 lines 

 (0"85)." It would appear that the nest is very difficult to find; and I never succeeded in getting much reliable 

 information from the natives concerning it. When interrogated on the subject they generally replied that its 

 nest was far away in the " mukalaney " (forest) ; and in many parts they have an idea that no one has ever 

 seen the nest of a " Batta-goya." 



In the summer of 1871 some eggs were kindly sent me by the Mudliyar Disanayke of Baddegama, which 

 were taken in bamboo-jungle, and said to belong to this Pigeon ; they must have been those of this or the next 

 species, if the locality was rightly given me, for they were not the Ground-Dove's eggs. They were pure 

 white and oval in shape, and slightly larger than those of the Spotted Dove. I regret to say that they got 

 lost with a number of other eggs before I had taken any measurements. In August 1876, while forcing my 

 way through some dense bamboo-cheena in the Pasdun Korale, I flushed a female from a clump of bamboos ; 

 she flew into an adjoining thicket and there remained, from which I infer that she was sitting ; it was, how- 

 ever, raining so hard that I could not find the nest, and after a short search I gave up looking for it. 



Few have been successful in India in finding its nest. Blyth records one which was built halfway up a 

 small mahogany-tree in the Calcutta gardens. Hodgson states that it breeds in the Terai in April and May 

 and in the low valleys at the base of the Nepal hills, making a loose stick nest on branches of trees at no great 

 elevation from the ground, and laying two eggs. Mr. Irwin, as recorded by Mr. Hume, found its nest in 

 Hill Tipperah ; it was a slight structure of thin twigs, loosely put together, and laid towards the end of a 

 branch of a small tree. It contained two eggs. 



Mr. Oates, again, took the nest in a thick bush about 7 feet from the ground ; it was merely a few sticks 

 laid together like a Dove's. The eggs were " white, with a little gloss, l - 06 and T09 by 087 respectively." 

 The eggs sent by Mr. Irwin measured IT and l - 02 in length by 0'9 and 085 in breadth. 



* This would appear to refer to the other species, 0. pompadora. 



