I 
300 BIRDS OF BRITISH BIJRMAH. 
generally tinged bluer along the edge of tlie wing : in some specimens 
these parts are deep blackish slaty, only faintly tinged with metallic green 
and blue ; in some specimens, again, the grey tippings to the breast and 
abdomen are wanting ; the breast is deep metallic green, the feathers tipped 
purplish ; the tibial plumes are a rich purplish blue ; the abdomen, flanks 
and sides are a somewhat bright metallic green, with more or less of a 
golden glow at the tips and margins of the feathers. Almost all the sca- 
pulars, the feathers of the interscapulary region, and most of the lesser and 
median coverts are split at the ends in a very curious manner, the shaft 
only reaching to within from an eighth to a quarter of an inch of the end 
of the feather. 
In the young bird the protuberances at the base of the culmen, which in 
the adult males when we obtained them were fully as large as a pea, are 
entirely wanting ; the frontal feathers do not advance nearly so far as in 
the old birds ; there are no hackles ; the tail and all its upper coverts are 
bronzy green ; the whole mantle and scapulars are duller and at the same 
time much redder and more coppery than in any of the adults ; the head, 
neck all round, and entire lower parts are brown ; the tips of the feathers 
glossed with dull dark metallic green ; the whole of the rest of the plumage 
is duller everywhere than in the adults. [Hume.) 
The legs and feet vary from pinkish lake to dull purplish lilac ; the claws 
are chrome-yellow, the soles dull greyish yellow ; bill, cere and fleshy pro- 
tuberance at the base of the culmen (which, by the way, appears to be less 
developed in the female than in the male) dark blackish grey or deep 
slaty; the irides are deep brown. [Hume.) 
Length 16 inches, tail 3*5, wing 10, tarsus 17, bill from gape 1'5. The 
female is of the same size. 
The Hackled Ground-Pigeon is said by Mr. Blyth to be common in the 
Mergui archipelago. Mr. Davison did not meet with it in any of those 
islands ; bat he probably searched for them at the wrong time of the year. 
Mr. Blyth also gives it from the Malay peninsula. Dr. Tiraud states 
that it is found in the island of Poulo-Oondore off the coast of Cochin 
China and some other smaller islands. It is met with in New Guinea and 
some of the adjacent islands of the archipelago. Its true headquarters, 
however, appears to be the Nicobar Islands, especially the one called Batty 
Malve; and it ranges into the Andaman group. 
This Pigeon seems to feed entirely on fruits ; and it is fouud generally in 
small parties on the ground. The nest is placed on the branch of some 
bushy tree, and never, according to Mr. Davison, contains more than one 
egg. 
