272 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
up their residence in some clump of trees, near some pond 
or tank, and often in the close vicinity of villages, and 
there they roost at night, and in the early morning and 
at dusk they are to be seen, clustered thickly on the top- 
most boughs ; during the day not a bird is to be seen, the 
whole colony disperses far and wide over the country in 
pairs or little parties of from three to seven. They come 
in November, and disappear towards the end of March, 
feeding always like the common pigeon on grain of all 
kinds. 
They are not known to breed anywhere in our hills ; 
probably they all go to Central Asia during the hot season, 
and the specimen obtained by the Expedition was doubtless 
on its way to the plains. \_A. O. H.^ 
788 {bis). Coluxnba neglecta, Sp. nov. ? 
One specimen of a pigeon, a male, shot in Ladak, on 
June 26, 1870, is a typical example of the species (of 
which I have very numerous specimens) which (having no 
specimens of C. livia and C. Schimperi to compare with) I 
have called C. neglecta. This species may be at once dis- 
tinguished from C. intermedia by its much darker general 
hue and by its white, or more or less greyish white lower 
back, contrasting strongly with the blackish- slaty rump 
and upper tail-coverts. This species replaces C. intermedia, 
in most places in the interior of the Himalayas. The other 
specimen, a female, shot at Dras, June the 23rd, belongs to 
what seems to be a hybrid race between C. neglecta and C. 
intermedia. The general colour of the upper back, scapulars^ 
and coverts, is that of C. intermedia, but the lower back is 
a pale albescent grey or bluish-white, very different from 
that of the latter, and resembling in this respect C. 
neglecta, but not contrasting so strongly with the dark iron- 
grey rump and upper tail-coverts as does the white lower 
back of C. neglecta. This hybrid race (if such it be) is 
common in the outer ranges of the Himalayas, and I have 
shot it during the cold season in the plains, especially in 
districts near the foot of the hills. This race has been 
characterized by Captain Hutton in epist. as Columba 
