28 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



The amount of orange on the breast is very variable and there are two 

 specimens in the British Museum collection, both from southern Burma, 

 which have none at all, although they appear, otherwise, to be fully adult 

 birds. The grey of the head is also somewhat variable, in some specimens 

 being less sharply defined from the surrounding parts and also more dull 

 and less pure in tint, as well as more restricted in area. 



"Length 10.75 to 11.75; expanse 18.46 to 19.5; tail from vent 3.37 

 to 4.0 ; wing 6.0 to 6.25 ; tarsus 0.82 to 0.95 ; bill from gape 0.82 to 1.0 ; 

 weight 4.5 to 6 ozs." (Hume). 



The huge series of this bird which I have measured shows that this little 

 Green Pigeon varies very considerably in size, wing -measurements ranging 

 from 5.65 in. ( = 143.5 mm.) to no less than 6.5 ( = 164.7 mm.), the wing- 

 measurement of a specimen from Sylhet. I can trace no geographical 

 connexion with this variation in size : the largest and smallest birds being 

 found in the same areas. The average of over 300 wing-measurements is 

 6.10 in. ( = 154.9 mm.) ; the measurements of bill and tarsus vary to the 

 same extent in proportion. 



Two exceptionally large males shot in the Dibrugarh District of Assam 

 each weighed fully 7 oz., pulling the scale well down at that weight. The 

 great majority of birds do not, however, weigh much over 5 oz. 



Colours of soft farts. Bill bluish-white, the base somewhat darker and 

 the lower mandible still paler ; legs lake-red, the posterior portion always 

 paler, in old birds the edges of the scales showing white ; iris pink with an 

 inner circle of pale blue, orbital-skin bluish or pale slate-grey. In young 

 birds the two rings of colour in the iris are pale and indefinite and the orbital- 

 skin is almost white ; nestlings have the iris a pale brown. " Irides usually 

 with an inner ring of bright blue, and an outer ring of salmon or buffy pink, 

 sometimes they are a rosy pink, at others reddish yellow." (Davison.) 



Female has the chestnut-maroon of the upper-parts replaced by green ; 

 there is no sign of any orange on the breast, which is concolorous with the rest 

 of the plumage, and the under tail-coverts are white or buffy-white with 

 greenish bases and centres. I cannot find that there is any difference between 

 the sexes in size ; the biggest birds have been mostly males, but so have 

 the smallest, the range in length of wing for 180 females being between 

 5.82 in. ( = 144.8 mm.) and 6.30 ( = 159.10 mm.), and the average of the 

 same number 6.09 in. ( = 154.68 mm.). 



The young male is like the female, but assumes a certain amount of maroon 

 on the upper-parts, more especially on the lesser wing-coverts, in the autumn 

 moult of the first year. 



Birds in their first plutnage have the grey of the head duller than in the 

 adult, and the yellow margins to the wing-feathers narrower and paler in 

 colour. The young birds are also very much smaller than adults, and do 

 not attain their full size until they are a year old, that is to say, until the 

 spring of the year succeeding that in which they are hatched. 



Distribution. The Ashy-headed Green Pigeon is found in Lower 

 Bengal from about as far south as the latitude of Calcutta, though rare there, 

 becoming more common in the eastern Bengal districts of Maldah, Barisal, 

 Dacca and Mymensingh, and thence north and east extremely plentiful 

 throughout the Assam Valley, Cachar, Sylhet, Chittagong, Comillah, and 

 Noakhali. 



In the Khasia Hills, Manipur, Looshai Hills, and the hill-ranges of 



