136 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



" Bill black, with a white mealiness at the humid base of its upper- 

 mandible ; irides brownish-orange ; lids bluish-white, and legs reddish- 

 pink " (Blyth). 



Measurements. Much the same as those of Columba livia livia, its 

 European cousin. The series in the British Museum, a very complete one, 

 from the Hume Collection principally, has wing-measurements varying from 

 8.3 in. ( = 209.8 mm.) to 9.35 in. ( = 237.4 mm.), with an average of almost 

 exactly 9 in. ( = 228.6 mm.). The weight runs up to about 12 oz., but 

 averages somewhere about 10 oz. or a little over ; " 10 to 11.5 oz." (Scully). 



Adult female. Similar to the male. 



Colours of soft parts. Similar to the same parts in the male, but the 

 iris possibly never assumes as bright a golden-red tint as it sometimes does 

 in old males. 



Measurements. The female is a decidedly smaller bird than the male, 

 with a wing-measurement averaging very little, if anything, over 8.70 in. 

 ( = 220 mm.) and varying between 8.02 in. ( = 202.7 mm.) and 8.80 in. 

 ( = 222.4 mm.). The other measurements differ from those of the male in 

 corresponding degree. 



Weight from 8 J oz. to 11 oz., and averaging about 9| oz. 



Young male. Similar to the adult, but rather browner, and with the 

 wing-bars less distinct and the iridescent colours of the neck not so well 

 developed. 



The feathers of the back, wing-coverts, and more rarely of the head and 

 breast, are fringed with pale dull brown. 



Colours of soft parts. The iris is at first a dull glaucous-brown, then a 

 pale reddish-brown, from which it gradually changes to the orange-red of the 

 adult. The legs are a less brilliant red in tint and often paler. 



Nestling, in dawn. Pale yellow-buff. 



Nestlings just prior to leaving the nest are often so fat that they weigh 

 as much as, and sometimes even more than, the adult birds. 



Distribution. Throughout India from Ceylon over the whole peninsula 

 of India to the extreme north-west, throughout the Himalayas to a considerable 

 elevation, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikhim, and Tibet. It occurs in south Sylhet, 

 but I never came across it in the North Cachar Hills or in Cachar itself except 

 in Hylakandy, where it was very rare. It is not found in the eastern Assam 

 Valley, but is occasionally seen in Goalpara and north-east of Mymensingh, 

 and is again fairly common in Noakhali and Chittagong. In Burma it is 

 common in the central dry zone, and is recorded as common in the 

 Myingyan district by Macdonald, but is apparently absent from most of 

 the wet and well forested parts, and is not common all over Burma, as stated 

 by Blyth. 



As it is certain that future systematists will examine this Pigeon very 

 carefully; with a view to splitting it up into various geographical subspecies, 

 it may be as well for me to record here the result of my own investigations 

 into the subject. 



In the first place it is undoubtedly the fact that bu-ds from the Himalayan 

 regions, from Afghanistan and Baluchistan, and those from the more desert 

 countries and parts of the Deccan, are on the whole paler than are birds from 

 southern India, Ceylon, north-east India, and Burma ; that is to say, birds 

 from high elevations and desert-country average somewhat lighter than those 

 from forested and more humid places. 



