178 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



they were said to have been placed in small saplings five or six feet from 

 the ground. These two eggs measured 1.65 by 1.28 in. and 1.63 by 1.25 in. 



Since 1889 I have taken about a dozen nests of this Pigeon in North 

 Cachar, Assam, and in the Khasia Hills. The nest is the usual Pigeon's 

 nest of twigs and sticks, and measures about 8 or 9 in. in diameter by about 

 2 to 4 in. deep. The materials of which it is composed appear to have been 

 picked up dead from the ground and not torn from the living tree ; the 

 depression is hardly visible and the twigs are put together in the roughest 

 manner imaginable. 



In most cases the nest is placed in a small tree or tall bush at no great 

 height from the ground, generally between 5 and 10 ft., but occasionally 

 it is placed higher up in a tall tree and still more seldom in a bamboo-clump. 

 In the latter case, however, the bamboo-clump selected appears to be always 

 one standing in mixed tree and bamboo forest, and not in jungle composed 

 of bamboo only. 



Normally the number of eggs laid is one only, but more than once I 

 have taken two from the same nest, and the bird probably lays two eggs in 

 about once in every five instances. 



The eggs are of the ordinary Columha type, pure white, long ellipses 

 in shape or long ovals, abnormal eggs tending towards pointed ovals. The 

 texture is hard and close but not very fine, and, even when first laid, they are 

 not highly glossed. 



They vary extraordinarily in size, the largest egg in my collection being 

 1.65 by 1.28 in. ( = 41.8 by 32.5 mm.) and the smallest 1.40 by 1.10 in. 

 ( = 35.5 by 28 mm.) ; the average of fifteen eggs is 1.48 by 1.15 in. 

 ( = 37.6 by 29.2 mm.). 



They seem to be late breeders, all my eggs having been taken in the 

 last few days of May, in June, or in early July. Both birds take a share 

 in the duties of incubation, and I have taken more males than females on 

 the nest, but this is possibly due to the fact that, as is the case with many 

 other Pigeons and Doves, the male bird seems to take up his duties during 

 the daytime, whereas the female sits principally at night. 



The tree, bush, or bamboo-clump selected as a site for their nest is one 

 almost always within easy reach of water, often on the bank of some small 

 forest-stream or pool and, equally invariably, it is one standing in fairly 

 thick forest. 



The Purple Wood-Pigeon is a bird more of the plains than 

 mountains, but ascends the latter regularly to a height of some 2,000 ft., 

 and is sometimes found up to about 4,000 ft. At whatever height 

 it is found, it seems essential that there should be both ample evergreen 

 or shady forest and a certain amount of cultivation. Over the greater 

 part of its range it appears to be a decidedly rare bird. In the plains 

 of Cachar and Sylhet it is commonly met with, and both Messrs. Vernon 

 Woods and W. Cathcart, C.I.E., tell me that they have frequently shot 

 this Pigeon in the rice-fields when out snipe-shooting at the end of the 

 season after the rice has been cut. About the foot-hills of the Sylhet 

 and Khasia Hills it is even more numerous, and Harington says that 

 in the Myitkina district and round about Rangoon it is very fairly 



