COLUMBA INTEBMEDIA. 
699 
than the back ; and any races with at all a whitish rump, whether the albescent coloration be of small or great 
extent, I would class as strictly belonging to 0. livia. The real character of the Indian species is that its runif is 
darJcer instead of lighter than the haclc. 
Columha rufestris, Pallas, “ The Blue Hill-Pigeon,” the Asiatic pied race of C. livia, might equally well be styled a variety 
of the present species, and differs from it maiuly in the white colour of the tail ; the lower back, rump, and a broad 
bar across the tail are white ; but the upper tail-coverts and the base of the tail are slate-grey, and the tip of the 
latter is very dark grey ; the interscapular region and wings are pale slate-grey, the chest viuaceous, and the lower 
breast and abdomen albescent slaty grey. An example from the Altai Mountains measures — wing 8‘5 inches, 
tail 4-5. It is found in Central Asia and Turkestan, and has been killed in Kumaon. 
An example of C. livia from Mesopotamia measures 8’4 inches in the wing, and has the interscapular region and wing- 
coverts pale grey, and the lower hath and rump pure white ; the hind neck is not so highly illumined with green and 
copper-colour as in the Indian bird ; the under surface is pale bluish gre 3 n A Jericho specimen is slightly darker 
beneath. I notice those two as examples of this Pigeon from regions not very remote from India. In Cashmere 
Mr. Hume says an intermediate form exists with less of the pure white on the rump ; but he has received the 
true livia from Sindh ; and I observe that he allows Mr. Cripps’s identification of it in Purreedpore to stand. 
Distribution . — There arc several isolated colonies of this fine Pigeon round the coast of Ceylon ; but they 
are not restricted to two localities, as Layard and others have supposed. His remarks are : — “ Extremely local, 
being confined to two places, ‘Pigeon Island,^ off Trincomalie, and a rock off the southern coast near Barberryn. 
From these it, of course, makes incursions into the interior, and I have heard of specimens being shot at Vavonia- 
Vlancolom, on the great central road, about fifty miles from Trincomalie.” 
The truth is, there are more colonies of these birds in the interior than one supposes. Those seen at 
Vavonia-Vlancolom evidently have their home in some of the isolated rocky masses which are characteristic 
of the northern forests. It is possible there may be a colony near Mahintale. There is a large one in a 
precipitous gorge through which the stream flow's, which is crossed by the bridge just to the north of Nalanda. 
Here my friend Mr. Simpson, of the Indian telegraph-departmeirt, who informed me of the existence of the 
colony, has, on several occasions, had good sport, and thither people resort from Matale to shoot the Pigeons. 
There is another colony at the Hatagalla rocks, about 15 miles west of Hambantota; and I dare say there are others 
round the east coast, between there and Batticaloa. From inquiries I made at Ambalangoda, I imagine that the 
Barberryn rocks near Bentota arc deserted, and consequently I did not visit them, but I may have been mis- 
informed. The rocky islet which is so much frequented by these Pigeons, near Nilavele, is not Pigeon Island 
itself, but a small island of about two or three acres in extent, half a mile nearer the shore, and about 13 miles 
Maceoptoia MACEOtTEA, Gmeliu {Tourterelle a large queue du Senegal, Buffou, PL Enl. 329).' — -This Cuckoo-Dove 
was said by Bonaparte to inhabit Ceylon ; but no one has ever seen it in the island, as far as I, or any other person who 
has paid anj' attention to the ornithology of Ceylon, can ascertain. It is not likely that a large bird like a Cuckoo-Dove 
could have been passed over all these years ; it would have been recognizable on the wdng by reason of its long tail, 
even if it had not actually been procured. The only evidence we have as to this Pigeon being a Ceylon bird is contained 
in the simple statement by Bonaparte (Consp. ii. p. 57), “ ex Ceylon, nec Senegal.” 
The Marquis of Tw'eeddale, in a note to Mr. Holdsw'orth on this subject, remarks that it is doubtful whether Bonaparte 
ever saw the bird, the diagnosis given by him (loc.cit.) only containing “ the prominent characters discernible in BiifEon’s 
plate.” Buffon, who figiircd this Pigeon from a Senegal example presented by Adansoii under the name of “ Tourterelle 
a large queue du Senegal,” is, writes the Marquis, “ most circumstantial in his account of the locality whence his bird 
was obtained; and the fact that tlie specimen bore a title given by Adanson strongly corroborates the Senegal origin.” I 
am under the impression myself that Bonaparte got his information from a perusal of Temminck’s remarks (Hist, des 
Colombes, p. 345) in reference to this Cuckoo-Dove — “ Levaillant m’a dit avoir vu des individus rapportes de Ceylon.” 
There could be no more broken reed to trust to in a matter of geographical distribution than Levaillant ! 
There are examples in the British Museum labelled as this species, one of which measures in the wing 6-3 and in 
the tail 8-5 inches. It is of a dusky coppery red on the back and upper tail-coverts ; tail brownish copper-colour ; head 
and sides of neck viuaceous, illmniued with bronze-colour ; chest and underparts fulvous tawmy, with bronze reflections, 
each feather with a black w'avy cross bar ; flanks and under tad-coverts light cinnamon-colour. Species of Cuckoo-Dove 
found in the Indo-Malacean region are: — M. iusalia, Hodgson, from the Eastern Himalayas ; M. rujiceps, Teium., and 
M. assimilis, Hume, from Tenasserim ; and M. rujipennis, Blyth, from the Nicobars. 
4u2 
