82 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



In the Ibis for 1868, p. 45, Blyth thus refers to these specimens : 

 "Sphenocercus cantillans, nobis, (passim) figured also by the late Prince of 

 Canino, is merely S. sphenura the common Kokhela of thai Himalayas, after 

 moulting in captivity, when the green of the plumage is more or less completely 

 replaced by delicate pearl grey, as was long ago remarked by my friend Captain 

 Thomas Hutton of Masuri." 



These two specimens are now in the Gould collection in the British Museum, 

 and on examination they show not only that they have practically lost all 

 the green and yellow pigment in their plumage, but in one case also a few of 

 the quills of the left wing are pure white, showing a further development 

 towards accidental albinoism. As already remarked the yellow pigment has 

 practically disappeared both above and below, leaving the reds and greys 

 dominant, though the red is also showing signs of exhaustion. The breast 

 is a dull pink with no trace of orange, and the maroon of the back is as usual 

 in area, but is dull and pale. 



It seems quite probable that in time these two birds would have become 

 practically white, either from ill health, bad or unsuitable feeding, or some 

 other cause. Captivity does not, though Blyth would seem to imply the 

 contrary, normally cause Green Pigeons to lose their yellow or other pigment. 

 I have now seen a good many, both of this and allied species, in captivity, 

 but have so far come across no similar instance of discoloration. At the 

 same time yellow pigment is undoubtedly the most volatile of all colouring 

 matter in birds' plumage, and in other species of green birds, such as the Cissas 

 the green, in captivity or in ill health, often becomes a blue through the 

 yellow pigment evaporating and not being re-supplied. 



Distribution. The Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon is found from Kashmir 

 in the west, through Nepal, Sikhim, Bhutan, the Dafla and Abor Hills, north 

 of the Brahmapootra, and all the Assam hill-ranges south of that river, into 

 the Chin Hills, Shan States and Burmese hill-ranges into Tenasserim. 



Nidification. The Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, as far as I personally 

 know, and in so far as anything has yet been recorded, breeds only in evergreen- 

 forests, or in forest which is in full leaf during their breeding-season. This 

 commences in early April and extends through May and into June, but the 

 great majority of young birds are well on the wing by the beginning of August 

 or end of July. 



As usual with Green Pigeon both parents share the labour of making the 

 nest, and of incubation when the eggs are laid. The nest is exactly like that 

 of the Pin -tailed Green Pigeon, but is often placed at much greater heights 

 from the ground. Mr. Dodsworth records one placed on a bough of a large 

 tree about forty ft. up, and Hume says that they build their nests in trees 

 at any height from six to fifty feet. Hume also says that they make their nests 

 of coarse grass and twigs, but though I have seen a very large number of nests 

 certainly not one in ten has had any grass in it, and they are usually made 

 of dry dead twigs, more or less mixed and interlaced with live ones torn from 

 the tree in which the bird is building. 



Most of the neets taken by myself were at heights between fifteen and 

 twenty-five feet from the ground, but they were far more often placed above 

 than below twenty feet, and more often than not on fau-ly large branches 

 and boughs rather than on clusters of tmgs and small branches. 



Though generally laying two eggs both these and the Pin-tailed Green 

 Pigeon seem occasionally to lay but a single egg. I have found such hard- 

 set, and nothing to show that a second egg had fallen from the nest. 



