OSMOTREEON POMPADOEA. 729 



who states that he -had noticed it as a variety of malabarica from South India, before it was discriminated as 

 O.flavogularis by Blyth, was not aware what localities it frequented, although, many 3'ears previous to his publi- 

 cation of the ' Birds of India,' he mentions the shooting of a specimen which appears to have been the same. I 

 conclude, however, that Mr. Hume has specimens from the south of the peninsula, and I will only add that Blyth 

 discriminated his favogularis from Ceylon specimens ; and therefore it is plain that his species is the same as 

 Gmelin's. 



0. pompadora differs from 0. malabarica chiefly in the coloration of the under tail-coverts. In the male of the latter 

 the longer feathers are cinnamon-colour, and the shorter lateral ones whitish with slaty green bases ; the forehead 

 is ashy white, darkening gradually to slaty on the crown and nape ; the mantle is maroon, as in our bird, but the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts are yellower ; the throat is likewise yellow ; wing of a South-Indian specimen 5-7. 



0. griseicauda, Wallace, from the Sula Islands and Celebes, belongs to the same section as 0. malabarica. It has the 

 face, forehead, and crown fine leaden grey ; the mantle, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts maroon, the colour not 

 extending so much to the point of the wing as in 0. pompadora : tf , Sula Islands, wing, 5-75 ; Java (0. pulve- 

 rulenta, "Wall.), wing 5"6. 



0. chloroptera, Blyth, from the Audamans, has the under tail-coverts green, with cream-coloured tips in both sexes ; it 

 is more closely allied to our bird than the Celebean species, differing chiefly in haviug the forehead bluish white ; the 

 crown is bluish, as in 0. pompadora, the wing-coverts and tertials are more broadly margined .with yellow ; rump 

 and upper tail-coverts greenish yellow ; throat greenish. 



Distribution. — This stout handsome little Pigeon is very abundant throughout all the inland forests and 

 well-wooded districts of Ceylon. On the north-east coast;, however, where the forest and wild jungle grow 

 clown to the water's edge almost, I have met with it in numbers close to the sea ; but, as a rule, its place is 

 taken on the sea-board by the last-mentioned species. In the forests of the Vanni, and, in fact, throughout 

 the northern half of the island, in the Eastern Province, and in the jungle-country south of Haputale, it is 

 abundant. In the latter region I did not notice it near the sea, except where the rivers were lined with 

 forest containing fruit-bearing trees ; but the Orange-breasted Pigeon was to be seen in the scrubs near the 

 sea wherever they were interspersed with Palu- trees. In the south-west this latter species is, as I have already 

 remarked, common in wooded country not far from the coast ; but the present is met with first in noticeable 

 numbers some distance up the rivers, and becomes numerous in the Oodogamma district, inhabiting thence the 

 Hinedun pattu up to the Singha-Rajah forest on the borders of the Kukul Korale, where I have seen it at an 

 elevation of 2000 feet. Further north, in the low-lying wooded and semi-cultivated portion of the Kukul 

 Korale and in the forest-country of the Pasdun Korale, it is very numerous, extending throughout Saffragam : 

 round the base of the Peak it swarms; in fact, I do not think I found it anywhere on the western side of the 

 island more abundant than in Mr. Chas. de Zoysa's timber-forests at Kuruwite in the month of August. 

 Layard first procured it in the Matale district on the Balacadua Pass : thither it extends up from the low 

 country between Nalanda and Matale, where it is very numerous. On the western base of the West Matale 

 ranges it is equally plentiful, and in the Seven Korales and Kurunegala district is more numerous than 

 the last species. Mr. Parker notes it from Uswewa and Anaradhapura. 



Its range as a South-Indian species appears to be very limited. Jerdon, who writes of it under Blyth's 

 subsequent title of flavogularis , and mentions that it was discriminated from Ceylon specimens by that naturalist, 

 has the following statement (to which I have alluded above) concerning it : — " I had long previously noticed 

 it from the south of India as a variety of malabarica, but I am not aware what particular localities it 

 affects." Writing many years previously of O. malabarica, he speaks of an example which appears to me 

 to have belonged to the present species. " One specimen," he remarks, " that I shot in Malabar differs 

 from the others in having the face, forehead, and chin yellow, the under tail-coverts mottled with green and 

 white, and in the bluish tips of the lateral feathers being broader " than in malabarica. 



The Pompadour Pigeon was first made known from Ceylon, whence specimens were sent by Governor 

 Loten to Brown. 



Habits. — This Pigeon is an inhabitant of woods, forests, and openly-timbered country ; it collects together 

 in the fine Banyan-, Bo-, and Palu-trees which are scattered through the low jungles of the eastern and 

 northern districts, and also in the magnificent outspreading Mee-trees which line the borders of the jungle 

 tanks, and in such resorts feeds in flocks on the luscious berries which these large trees provide. Its 



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