1845.] Drafts for a Fauna Indica. 847 



mantle, and with orange, or orange and lilach, on the breast. Irides 

 crimson, with a blue ring encircling the pupil.* The voice, a melodious 

 deep- toned whistle, considerably prolonged and varied in different 

 cadences. Nidification, as in most other arboreal doves and pigeons, and 

 two white eggs produced, of a somewhat less elongated shape than in 

 common pigeons. Except in the pairing season, these birds collect in 

 small, or moderately large flocks, on the topmost branches of high jun- 

 gle trees, where, if one can be descried and is shot at, two or three will 

 commonly fall, that had eluded observation from the similarity of their 

 colouring to that of the foliage. They subsist on fruits and berries of all 

 kinds, and during the season, especially on the small figs of the Ficus 

 indica and F. religiosa ; and they have likewise been observed " devour- 

 ing the blossoms and newly formed fruit of the mangoe and tamarind 

 trees." Their flesh is esteemed for the table, but the skin requires to be 

 removed, this having a strong bitter taste ; and hanging them up for a day 

 or two, when the season will permit of it, improves them much for 

 culinary purposes. 



It is necessary to distinguish three well marked sub -genera, as 

 follow, — 



A. tori a (since altered to RomerisJ, Hodgson. Distinguished by the 

 great strength and vertical depth of the corneous terminal portion 

 of the beak, which, in the typical species, is continued back to beyond 

 the feathers of the forehead. The eyes are surrounded by a naked 

 space. 



Tr. nipalensis : Toria nipalensis, Hodgson, As. Res. XIX, 164. 

 (Thorya, quasi rostrata, of the Nepalese.) Green, yellowish below 

 and towards the tail ; the crown of the head ash-coloured ; mantle 

 of the male, deep maronne-red, and a faint tinge of fulvous on the 

 breast ; primaries and their larger coverts, black, the latter margin- 

 ed with yellow; middle tail-feathers green, the rest with a blackish 

 medial band, and broad grey tips; lower tail-coverts cinnamon-coloured 

 (more or less deep) in the male ; subdued white, marked with green, in the 

 female. Bill, greenish- white, with a large vermillion spot occupying 

 the membrane at the lateral base of the mandibles : legs also vermillion : 



* A partial exception to this occurs in Tr. nipalensis only, among the Indian species ; 

 at least, the only two living specimens of this bird which 1 have 6een, had dark red- 

 brown irides, with a blue inner circle. Mr. Hodgson describes them as— " outer circle 

 of the iris orange-red, inner circle blue." 



