76 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



and is by no means rare in Cachar, Sylhet, Tipperah, and Chittagong 

 in the flat country below the hill-ranges. 



Personally I have not noticed much, if any, variation in the 

 elevation of their habitat connected with the seasons, and the birds 

 seemed quite as common at 6,000 ft. in the North Cachar and the Khasia 

 HiUs in December and January as they were in the hot weather months, 

 AprU to August. So, also, they are just as common in the foot-hills 

 and the broken country round about in the hottest weather as in the 

 coldest. The actual plains they probably do desert, during the 

 breeding-season, for the forests of the foot-hills, but even this is doubt- 

 ful, for one of my collectors told me that he found several pairs breeding 

 in the forests and swamps of the Hylakandy district, and IngHs also 

 obtataed birds in the same place during the rains. In Biuma, how- 

 ever, Harington and other observers have only recorded this beautiful 

 Pigeon from the hills, and it does not appear to be found in the dry 

 zone in central Upper Burma at any time of the year. 



This Pigeon is certainly not as gregarious as some of its nearest 

 relations. Many flocks consist of only some half-dozen birds, and 

 whilst often they are to be seen in twos or threes, they are very seldom 

 found in groups exceeding a score. At the same time very large 

 numbers of these birds coUect together at any place where there is 

 attraction in the way of food, and on one occasion at Laisung, in 

 North Cachar, at some 4,000 ft. elevation, I think there must have 

 been literally thousands of these Pin-tailed Pigeon and the Wedge- 

 tailed Pigeon collected to feed on a species of ficus which was then, in 

 the month of May, in fuU fruit. It being the breeding-season a few 

 birds only were shot for the pot, but for a distance of some three miles 

 above and below my camp and on either side of the Laisung stream, 

 the birds simply swarmed, and the numbers one could have bagged 

 need only have been limited by the powers of the shooter to tramp 

 up and down and fire off his gun. 



Once the kmd of fig in season had been eaten, the birds aU dispersed 

 —and ten days later, when I returned over the same route, no 

 Pigeons were to be seen beyond the few who habituaUy resided in 

 that particular spot, and the trees which had been brick red with the 

 masses of small ripe figs, were stripped of the veiy last and most 

 unripe berry. 



I have ah-eady remarked on the curious similarity in the actions 



