NESTING HABITS OF E. AFRICAN BIRDS 47 
Columba arquatrix. 
This Appears to be the commonest pigeon of the Man 
forests and probably of other forests elsewhere in British East 
Africa. Conspicuous for its white-flecked plumage, contrasted 
with the very dark grey general coloration, its bright yellow 
beak, eyelids, legs, and feet, one can hardly fail to recognise 
this bird during a stay in this country. In the evenings 
they fly into the Man forest in immense numbers. They 
furnish splendid shooting but, unfortunately, owing to their 
diet of wild olive berries, their flesh is bitter and unpalatable. 
Perhaps some reader of this Journal knows of a method of 
removing this bitter flavour and will furnish us with the 
recipe. 
I found a nest of this species on August 80. The bird 
flew from the nest with a clatter and thus called my attention 
to it. It was a typical pigeon’s nest — just a few twigs loosely 
put across each other. On climbing the wild olive tree in 
which it was situated I found that it was quite out of reach. 
Although only some fifteen feet from the ground, it was at the 
end of an exceedingly slender bough, and I did not dare to risk 
the almost inevitable fall. I could see there was only one egg, 
so I left it till two days later — September 1. By then I had 
manufactured a cloth bag tied to a pole. The bird was on 
the nest and so confiding that I put all doubts as to its identity 
at rest. On climbing to it I found there was still only one 
egg, and, after considerable ‘ fishing ’ under difficulties, I 
managed to safely extract it. The egg was similar to that 
of the typical English wood pigeon’s, but somewhat smaller. 
It proved to be slightly incubated. It would be interesting 
to know whether one egg is the typical clutch. Two is, of 
course, the number laid by pigeons the whole world over. 
This particular bird, however, had two days in which to lay 
the second egg, and the egg taken had undoubtedly been sat 
upon for two or three days. Perhaps a second egg was laid 
and jerked from the nest on the occasion of the bird’s rapid 
exit on my first visit. 
