174 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



Osmaston, writing in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 

 says that he found this Pigeon " fairly common in the dense oak and chestnut 

 forests between 7,000 and 8,000 ft. I found two nests in small trees about 

 6 ft. and 10 ft. respectively above the ground on the 21st June. They were 

 of the ordinary platforms of sticks, and contained each one young bird. 

 These I brought up by hand, and they are now denizens of the Calcutta 

 Zoological Gardens." 



The eggs seem to me to be rather small for the size of the bird : my biggest 

 egg measures 1.56 by 1.18 in. ( = 39.6 by 30 mm.), and the smallest 1.46 

 by 1.06 in. ( = 37 by 26.9 mm.). 



Two of the eggs are curiously coarse in texture for a Pigeon's egg, and 

 are probably abnormal in this respect as two others in my collection are as 

 smooth as any other Pigeon's or Dove's egg, though with a very stout and 

 strong shell. 



In Sikhim this Pigeon seems to be comparatively plentiful, and 

 Osmaston has found it to be " fairly common " rotmd about Darjiltng, 

 where it kept to the dense oak and chestnut forests. Elsewhere, all 

 over its range, it appears to be very rare, though this may be partly due 

 to its very shy, retiring habits. 



In North Cachar it only occurred as a quite rare straggler ; some 

 years I would see it half-a-dozen times during the whole twelve months, 

 at other times a couple of years would pass without a single bird being 

 noted. In the Naga HiUs, adjoining the North Cachar HiUs, the Darjiling 

 Wood-Pigeon was less uncommon, but there the ranges run from 6,000 

 to 10,000 ft., whereas in North Cachar there are few over 6,000 ft., an 

 elevation which is too low for the bird to frequent in any numbers. 

 In the Khasia HiUs I never came across it, and I do not think it ever 

 enters these hiUs, nor would the pine-forests, the usual forest over 

 4,600 ft., hold out any inducement to the birds to visit them. 



From the little I saw of them in North Cachar, I came to the con- 

 clusion that when not nesting they were the hardest of aU the Pigeons 

 to get close to. They used to sit in the denser foHaged parts of the 

 oak-trees, never moving or uttering a sound until they thought I had 

 got too near to be safe, when they quietly dropped, if I may use 

 such an expression, out of the tree on the side opposite to me and wended 

 their way to safety through the tree-tops. Even their flight was 

 singularly quiet, and beyond an occasional "flip-flap" of their wings as 

 they started, or again as they made some extra effort in twisting and 

 turning in and out of the trees, I heard no sound. Never did I hear 

 them make the loud clapping with their wings indulged in by most 

 Pigeons at the start of their flight, this probably because they descended. 



