34 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



with their feet, wounded birds often seizing a twig or branch and 

 hanging on, head downwards, until they drop off dead, and sometimes 

 even after death the feet retain their hold. They are not, however, 

 quick in their movements about a tree, and are very parrot-like in 

 their actions, especially as they clamber slowly down some hanging 

 branch towards a tempting cluster of fruit or berries. 



They are, of coTU^se, entirely vegetarian in their diet, but not 

 entirely frugivorous, for they wiU eat grain of all kinds, and also the 

 tiny new buds of some kinds of trees and bushes. They are very 

 partial to the fruit of the ber tree, and it is incredible the amount 

 and weight of the berries they will cram into their crops, which 

 get so distended and distorted that they look as if they must burst. 

 Naturally, when a shot bird falls to the ground its crop does burst, 

 and as the dense plumage also comes off very easily, birds when 

 gathered often present a very dishevelled appearance. For this reason, 

 also, it is very hard to obtain good specimens for the museum, and 

 not one bird in three shot is any good for this purpose. 



Greediness appears not to have any iU effect on Green Pigeons, 

 which are generally in excellent condition, often having regular layers 

 of fat between the skin and the flesh. All Green Pigeons are very good 

 for the table, but they should be skinned and not plucked only, for 

 their skins are very tough and sometimes seem to give a rather rank 

 taste to the flesh. The best way of aU to cook them is to jug them in 

 claret, and the next best to roast them in a ball of clay, which keeps 

 in all the juices but takes away skin and feathers complete when the 

 ball is opened. 



I have above noted that this httle Green Pigeon is entirely 

 vegetarian in its diet, but this is not quite correct, for, like almost 

 every other bird and animal, it wiU greedily eat white ants. For this 

 purpose it descends to the ground and runs about quite actively, seizing 

 both those termites which drop to the ground on losing their wings 

 and those which are just emerging from their nest-holes. 



It will also descend to the ground to eat strawberries or other 

 fruit growing on ground-plants. 



This species sometimes assembles in very large flocks, and I think 

 I have seen one or two which must have numbered over two hundred ; 

 as a general rule, however, they wiU be found in flocks of anything 

 from half a dozen to thirty or forty. Even during the breeding-season 



