866 Drafts for a Fauna Indica. [No. 168. 



the neck and shoulders, glossed with changeable green and reddish-purple, 

 the former predominating above, the latter below ; and upon each side of 

 the neck a great patch of subdued white, in general largely developed, 

 very rarely reduced to a mere trace : coverts forming the edge of the 

 wing, and impending the winglet, white, as is also the exterior margin 

 of each primary : tail grey at base, becoming blackish at its tip. Bill 

 orange, with a white mealiness at the tumid base of its upper mandible : 

 feet red : and irides light yellow. Length, seventeen by thirty inches ; 

 and wing nine inches and a half. 



This well known European species inhabits the north-western Hima- 

 laya, as about Simla, and in the Alpine Punjab. 



C. (?) Elphinstonii : Ptilinopus Elphinstonii, Sykes, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1832, p. 149 : a Carpophaga, apud G. R. Gray. (Neilgherry Wood 

 Pigeon.) " Upper-parts fuscous-brown ; the head, neck, and lower-parts, 

 ashy ; nape black, the feathers marked with a white spot at tip ; inter- 

 scapularies ruddy ; neck and breast glossed with emerald-green, the 

 rump with ashy; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th primaries, having their 

 outer web emarginated. Irides ochre-yellow." Length, fifteen or six- 

 teen inches. 



I have had no opportunity of examining this fine species, but from 

 the above description of its plumage, translated from Colonel Sykes's 

 brief Latin definition, I cannot help doubting exceedingly the propriety 

 of arranging it as a Carpophaga, and as strongly suspect that the present 

 is its true systematic station. Colonel Sykes describes it to be " a rare 

 bird in the Dukhun, met with only in the dense woods of the ghauts. 

 Not gregarious. Stony fruit found in the stomach. Sexes alike. Flight 

 very rapid. The lateral skin of its toes is very much developed." Mr. 

 Jerdon has only noticed it "in the dense woods on the summit of the 

 Neilgherries, in small parties, or single. It is a retired and wary bird. I 

 found various fruits," he adds, " and small shells, in its stomach." 



C. pulchricollis, Hodgson, (mentioned in Mr. G. R. Gray's catalogue 

 of the specimens of Columbida in the British Museum). (Ashy Wood 

 Pigeon.) Considerably smaller than the two preceding species ; and ge- 

 neral colour dusky- grey, much paler and faintly tinged with lake below, 

 more or less whitish towards the vent, and subdued white on the lower 

 tail- coverts : tail blackish : head, cheeks, and ear- coverts, pure light 

 ashy, passing to whitish on the throat ; the sides of the neck and breast, 



