(2o) DUCULA INSIGNIS CUPREA. 

 JERDON'S IMPERIAL PIGEON. 



Columba cuprea Jerdon, Mad. J.L.S., XII p. 12 (1840). 



Carpophaga badia id. ib., XIII p. 164. 



Carpophaga insignis Blyth, J.A.S.B., XIV p. 855 ; Jerdon, B.I., III p. 457 ; 



Barnes, J.B.N.H.S., V p. 329 ; Davison, ib., XII p. 62. 

 Carpophaga cuprea Hume, Str. Feath., Ill p. 328 ; Hume and Bourd., ib., 



IV p. 403 ; Hume, ib., VIII p. 109; id., Cat. no. 781, bis ; Bourd., Str. 



Feath., IX p. 300; Davison, ib., X p. 407; Taylor, ib., p. 464; 



Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 215; Davison, J.B.N.H.S., VI p. 340, 



ib., XII p. 62. 

 Ducula cuprea Blanf., Avi. Brit. I., IV p. 22 ; Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 66 ; 



Gates, Cat. Eggs B.M., I p. 86 ; Sinclair, J.B.N.H.S., XII p. 185; 



Bourd., ib., XVI p. 2. 



Vernacular Names. None recorded. 



Description. — Adult male. Differs from insignis in having the back 

 and wings an olive-brown with little or no gloss, and no tint of copper ; in 

 having the rump darker and sometimes tinged with olive ; in having the 

 terminal pale band on the tail much narrower, hardly one-quarter of the total 

 length of the tail, and in having the under-surface darker and more vinous, 

 and much mixed with ochre on the abdomen and posterior flanks. The 

 under tail-coverts are often more or less faintly freckled with dusky, and 

 the axillaries and under aspect of the wing are much darker than in either 

 insignis or griseicapilla. As a rule, also, the white of the chin and throat 

 is much more restricted in area. 



Colours of soft parts. " Bill dull lake-red at the base, slaty at the tip ; 

 orbits lake-red, irides red-brown ; legs dull lake-red " (Jerdon). 



Measurements. Length 16 to 18 in. ( = 396.4 to 447 mm.) ; wing 8.3 to 

 9.2 in. ( = 210.8 to 233.6 mm.) ; tail about 7 in. ( = 177 mm.) ; bill at front 

 about .98 ( == 24.9 mm.), and from gape about 1.4 in. ( = 26.5 mm.) ; tarsus 

 about 1 in. ( = 25.4 mm.). 



Adult female. Does not differ from the male, except in being very 

 slightly smaller on an average, with a wing of about 8.5 in. ( = 215.9 mm.). 



Distribution. Southern India as far north as the Kanara district in 

 the Bombay Presidency on the west, where Davison records it as common. 

 Throughout the mountainous regions of Koorg, Wynaad, and Neilgherries, 

 but apparently not in the east of the Madras Presidency. It has been recorded 

 from the hills east of Mysore which run southwards from Bangalore to the 

 Neilgherries, but has not yet been recorded from further east than this. 



