142 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



get three birds out of four fired at unless the birds had been much 

 worried, when they naturally got very wild, and it was difficult to get 

 anjrwhere near them. 



Over the greater part of its range, the Blue Rock-Pigeon is resident, 

 breeding, as already stated, in practically every month of the year ; 

 but in some places it would seem as if they were partially migratory, 

 or as if they resorted to one kind of country to roost and breed in, and 

 quite another kiud in which to feed. Thus Rattray found them " breeding 

 in hundreds in a cUff near the fort [Thull] about the middle of April 

 they all disappeared." Whitehead, in his notes on the birds of Kohat 

 and the Kurram Valley, says that he found them in large flocks from 

 August to April. Perreau also seems to have found them in Chitral 

 only from December to March. Other observers in Kanara have 

 noted that, though it retires to the hiU-ranges for the night, it feeds 

 dming certain seasons of the year in the low coast country. 



It is principally a grain feeder, but wiU also eat many kinds of 

 fruits and berries, and also young shoots of certain plants and crops. 

 I foimd that it was very partial to very young shoots of the mustard- 

 plant, and villagers have told me that where the birds are numerous 

 they often do considerable damage to the mustard crops, and in the 

 wheat-growing countries they are an unmitigated nuisance, the more 

 so that, in being sacred it is not permitted to do anything more than 

 attempt to drive them away — an attempt which is very seldom effective, 

 for the birds soon learn that they have nothing really to fear from the 

 beating of drums and banging of bamboos on the earth. 



Wherever they are protected they become incredibly tame and 

 have, hteraUy, often to be pushed to one side by the native passer-by, 

 though they will not allow of so near approach by the strangely-clad 

 European. When they are much shot at, however, they become very 

 wary, and it is then almost impossible to get within gunshot of them 

 when feeding in the open, and even in flight-shooting the shooter must 

 be suitably dressed, or more or less hidden by grass or bushes, if he 

 wishes for a successful shot. 



Their notes are exactly the same as those of the European form, 

 and need no description. They are not noisy birds individually, but 

 when they are in great numbers the rise and swell of the constant 

 cooing that goes on is indescribable — ^more like a distant rumbling of 



