146 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



says that he found it breeding both at Gyantse (13,100 ft.) and at Kangmar 

 (14,000 ft.), in ruined houses, during the months April to July. 



I have received a few of their eggs from Gyantse, and the nests in which 

 these were found are reported as being typical domestic Pigeons' nests, com- 

 posed of all sorts of rubbish and placed on the tops of walls close to the roofs 

 of deserted and broken down houses. One nest, placed in a hollow from 

 which part of the material of the wall — ^my informant does not say whether 

 it was brick or stone — ^had fallen out, was made of scraps of a scraggy tough 

 weed, a few sticks, some straw, and a good many feathers. The materials 

 were not wound together much, but had been trampled into a very dirty 

 mass which fell to pieces as it was pulled out of the hole. 



Another of my correspondents in Tibet apparently overlooked their 

 breeding in houses when he first went there, and in writing remarked 

 that it was difficult to get these eggs for me, as though the birds were very 

 plentiful they all made their nests in crevices and holes in exceedingly 

 high and precipitous cliffs, quite ungetable, except by letting men over 

 the edge with ropes. 



In these cliffs the birds apparently breed in vast colonies, placing their 

 nests in any crevice or hollow which they deem suitable, in some of the 

 larger several birds breeding in company, and in the smaller a single pair, or 

 perhaps two having their nests. I have also had eggs sent me from the Altai, 

 where they would appear to breed in places similar to these last described. 



The eggs are exactly like those of Columba livia, though smaller ; they 

 are white, smooth, and close in texture and highly glossed, and the shape is 

 a broad, very regular oval : in one case only was the egg slightly smaller at 

 one end than at the other. 



The average of my eggs is 1.46 in. by 1.12 in. ( = 37.1 by 28.4 mm.). 

 My eggs from the Altai were taken in May, and those from Gyantse in the 

 end of May and in June. 



In its general habits, this Pigeon seems to be very similar to 

 Columha livia intermedia, the common Rock-Pigeon, with which and 

 with the Snow-Pigeon, it often consorts. It is a bird of cliffs, rocks, 

 and open country, not of forests, but, as Bailey shows, it is not afraid 

 of comparative civilization, and enters the more deserted parts of 

 villages in Tibet much as the Blue Rock-Pigeon does the villages in 

 the plains. Scully says that "This Pigeon was common in the hills 

 on the south side of Eastern Turkestan during the months of August 

 and September, at elevations of from 8,000 ft. to 16,000 ft. The birds 

 seemed to be very fond of rocky cliffs, and usuaUy flew about in small 

 flocks or parties." 



In powers of flight they are equal to the Rock-Pigeon or Stock- 

 Doves and therefore form a very sporting bird for the gun, and they 

 cairy off a good lot of shot as weU as flying fast, so that the man who 

 " tinkers " his birds and fires that wee bit too much behind, is sure to 

 lose a large percentage of his birds. Bailey, in his Ust of game killed 

 in Tibet for the years 1906-9, gives the total of Pigeon kiUed as 351, 



