12 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



upon them, for no greater variety of shots is obtainable ; no quicker 

 shooting or straighter powder is required, than for the successful 

 shooting and gathering of a big bag of these birds. 



The Bengal Green Pigeon, the largest of these lovely birds, is 

 in Assam greatly outnumbered by some of its smaller cousins. Once, 

 however, I shot over thirty couple of Green Pigeon, of which aU but 

 two were of the present species, and on another occasion Mr. C. liawes 

 and I shot twenty-one couple in less than an hour one evening, after 

 returning from a long day's buffalo-shooting in north Lahkimpur. 



On this occasion we were riding home on our elephants, when 

 we saw two or three flights of Green Pigeon making for some trees 

 close to the path we were following. As we were near home we decided 

 to get off and shoot one or two for the pot ; so down we got and took 

 up our stands some hundred yards or so distant from, and on either 

 side of, the trees which formed the attraction. Within a few minutes 

 we were both hard at work, and in about half an hour, when cartridges 

 gave out, we had each twenty-one birds to our credit. 



The shooting was very pretty, and nearly every shot seemed 

 different from the rest. First a few birds would suddenly sweep up into 

 sight, flying low over a belt of bushes in front of us, and going as if 

 the next second would bring them iato us ; then, at the last moment, 

 with a turn and a twist, they would rise higher into the air and flash 

 by at the rate of sixty miles an hour. The next flock, perhaps, 

 would come into sight far away, and give the impression that they 

 were going to offer easy shots directly overhead, but before coming 

 into range they would suddenly dip in their flight and scurry past us, 

 a few feet from the ground. Then a single bird, or a pair of them, 

 would give a ghmpse of themselves as they sHpped past between the 

 bigger trees, instead of following the other birds into the more open 

 ground ; others, yet again, would come high overhead, but straight 

 on, and offer the most satisfactory rights and lefts possible. Some- 

 times a bird would flash past from behind us, and skim out of sight 

 before we realized that it had come ; but, as a rule, all the birds came 

 from the same direction. My bag of thirty odd couple of Bengal 

 Green Pigeons was made in the same place as these twenty-one couple, 

 but the birds were not quite so numerous, and my shooting It^sted from 

 about 4 p.m., when the birds began to come, until sudden dusk made 

 it too dark to see, and the last few birds came and went in peace. 



