1845.] Drafts for a Fauna Indie a. 865 



trifle longer : cap, comprising the throat and ear- coverts, ashy- black : neck, 

 rump (as in C. livia), and the entire under-parts, white, with a faint shade 

 of ashy, except on the rump, deepest on the lower tail- coverts : inter- 

 scapularies, scapularies, and wings, light brownish-grey, purer pale ashy 

 on the medial coverts of the wings ; the primaries dull- blackish towards 

 their tips, the secondaries broadly tipped with dusky, and the tertiaries 

 and their coverts having a subterminal dusky band, and broad greyish 

 tips, producing a series of three short bars, successively smaller to the 

 front, and a trace of a small fourth band anteriorly : tail and its upper 

 coverts ashy- black, the former having a broad greyish- white bar, oc- 

 cupying the third quarter from the base of its middle feathers, and nar- 

 rowing and curving forward to reach the tip of its outermost feathers. 

 Bill, black : legs, pinkish-red : and irides, yellow. Common on the rocky 

 heights of the Himalaya, inhabiting near the snow line. 



According to Capt. Hutton, there are two races, if not species, con- 

 founded under C. leuconota; viz. — the true leuconota, as figured by 

 Gould, with the white of the hind-neck spreading a considerable way 

 down the back, and which (he informs me) is found only " far in the 

 mountains ;" and another, of which the description wholly corresponds 

 with the Nepal and Darjeeling specimens which have served for the 

 above description, and which Capt. Hutton states — " inhabits the Doon 

 all the year, but is there called ' Hill Pigeon/ while the other is known 

 to collectors as the ' Snow Pigeon.' The Doon bird flies in small flocks 

 during summer from the hills to the Doon in the morning, and returns 

 to the hills in the evening." If there be really any difference, however, 

 between the birds adverted to, I suspect it must be merely one of age. 



Subgenus Palumbus, Kaup. Wood Pigeons or Cushats. These 

 have feet well adapted for perching, and a shorter tarse than in the 

 preceding section, which also is more feathered towards the knee. They 

 nidificate and habitually perch on trees.* 



C. palumbus, Lin. (European Wood Pigeon.) Upper-parts brownish- 

 grey, the head, cheeks, throat, rump, and upper tail-coverts, pure ashy, 

 paler on the lower tail- coverts ; fore-neck and breast vinaceous- ruddy, 

 weaker on the belly, and albescent towards the vent : nape, and sides of 



* It should be remarked, that the European C. anas is completely intermediate to 

 these two groups, in its form, colouring, habits, and nidification : it breeding sometimes 

 in the cavities of trees, sometimes in rabbit-burrows. 



