PURPLE WOOD-PIGEON 177 



= 224 mm.) ; bill at front .65 in. ( == 16.5 mm.) and from gape I.l in. 

 = 27.9 mm.) ; tarsus rather under 1.0 in. ( = 25 mm.) ; tail 6 in. 

 = 152.4 mm.) to 7 in. ( = 177.8 mm.). 



Tenasserim birds do not appear to be any smaller than those 



:rom north-east India, one of them having a wing measuring 9.25 in. 



= 234.9 mm.), but in the Hume collection there is a rather large percentage 



of obviously young birds from this part of Burma, and it may be on this 



account that Blanford has recorded his opinion to the effect that birds from 



this district are smaller than from elsewhere. 



Davison has only given the weight of one bird, and this as but 8 oz. 

 On the other hand, the only two I have weighed were 14 and 14| oz. 

 respectively, and 8 oz. seems very little for so big a bird so it may have been 

 a mistake for 18 oz. Cripps records the weight of six males as varying 

 between 12.75 and 18 oz. 



Adult female. Similar to the male, but slightly smaller. The head is 

 as pure a grey and the purple-chestnut as rich and glossy in the fully adult 

 female as it is in the male, but from the large percentage of dull coloured 

 females in collections it may be that females take six months or a year longer 

 than the males in obtaining their full splendour. 



Measurements. The female is decidedly smaller than the male, being 

 about 14 in. ( = 355.6 mm.) in total length and with a wing-average of 

 8.44 in. ( = 214.3 mm.) and a range in extremes of 8.0 in. ( = 203.2 mm.) 

 and 8.85 ( = 224.8 mm.) ; the measurements of the other parts are 

 correspondingly slightly smaller. Two females weighed by Cripps were 

 13.60 and 14 oz. respectively. 



Young in first year's plumage ( ? females in second year also) are generally 

 much duller in coloration and with the under-parts from chin to vent a dull 

 pale brown only suffused here and there with chestnut ; the head is the same 

 coloration as the neck, and the upper-parts are more brown. 



Young in first plumage are still browner and duller and have the wing- 

 coverts and interscapulars brown margined with rufous and submargined 

 with darker. 



Distribution. In the heavily-forested parts of Eastern Bengal, 

 Singhbhum, Manbhum, Purulia, Sunderbunds, Dacca and Mymensingh and 

 thence throughout the districts of the Assam Valley into Burma. South and 

 east of Assam it is found in Cachar, Sylhet, Tipperah and Chittagong, and 

 through all the damper wooded parts of Burma, Cochin China, and Siam 

 into the Malay Peninsula. There is a single specimen of this species in the 

 Poole Museum, which was procured by Layard in Ceylon, and Legge himself 

 thought he saw a flock of them near Borella in 1869. Since then no one 

 has again met with this Pigeon, and it can only occur in that island as a very 

 rare straggler. It has never been found in southern India. 



Nidification. There are only two notes recorded on the breeding of this 

 Pigeon. Gates, the first to discover its nests and eggs, writing to Hume 

 from Pegu recorded : " Kyeikpadein, 27th July. — ^Nest in fork of horizontal 

 bamboo-bough, about 10 ft. from the ground, composed of a few twigs woven 

 carelessly together. Male bird sitting. One egg quite fresh. Colour white, 

 very glossy. Size 1.47 by 1.15 in. Probably only one egg laid." 



The first eggs seen by myself were taken by my collectors on the 1st 

 and 2nd of June, 1889, and were brought to me a few days later. The two 

 nests from which they were taken were described as rough structures of 

 sticks through which the eggs were visible from below, and in both cases 



