BENGAL GREEN PIGEON 11 



completely screened the one from the others by magnificent specimens 

 of pepul [Ficus religiosa) and the banyan. Here and there were httle 

 patches of cultivation, and down below in the valley was a waving 

 sea of young rice, the tender pale green ghnting and swaying in the 

 sunlight, when the breeze played on its surface as on water. 



After a long morning's shooting we were lounging about in the 

 shade of a clump of mango trees, just finishing a well-earned lunch, 

 when I heard the most beautiful soft whistling coming from some 

 pepul trees near by. Asking my older companions what the musical 

 bird was, I was told, to my astonishment, that they were Green Pigeons. 

 Jumping up, I at once went to the trees whence the sound proceeded, 

 and for some minutes listened in silence : it was Hke that of a school- 

 boy whistling under his breath a succession of soft mellow calls, with 

 no tune, yet fuU of melody. The sounds rose and fell, now high, 

 now low, yet ever soft and sweet, and so ventriloquistic that I found 

 it impossible to locate the singer. At last a movement amongst the 

 leaves showed me where the bird was sitting, but so perfectly did its 

 green and yellow plumage harmonize with its surroundings, that once 

 my eyes were withdrawn and the bird quiescent, it was with the greatest 

 difficulty I could again discover it. When I did find it I fitred and 

 brought down, not only the bird I aimed at, but two others of whose 

 presence in that spot I was quite unaware. Frightened by the report, 

 some ten or twelve others flew from the tree, but a shot fired after them 

 only hastened their movements. My admiration for the beauty of 

 their plumage was no greater than my respect for their wonderful 

 flight, and though I was then a fair shot at snipe, jungle and spiu'-fowl, 

 etc., it was some time before I could reahze the speed of this bird, and 

 induce myself to shoot forward enough. ITieir flight is marvellously 

 quick, and they go at a great pace from the start, in addition to which 

 the way a flock of these birds alter their elevation as they fly is very 

 disconcerting to a beginner. 



Over the greater portion of their range, Green Pigeons are hardly 

 considered game-birds, and sportsmen seldom take the trouble to 

 actually work them up and obtain bags of Pigeons alone. In Bengal 

 Burma, and the Assam Valley, however. Green Pigeon rank very high 

 as game-birds, and much trouble is taken in the proper organization 

 and arrangements for shoots, at which these birds alone form the 

 objects of the sport. Full worthy, too, are they of the trouble spent 



