CHALCOPHAPS INDICA. 
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browner hue than the chest, with a trace of bluish in some specimens on the lower part ; green portions of the 
upper surface more overcast with bronze than in the male ; the pale rump-bands narrower ; the upper and under 
tail-coverts and the tail warm ferruginous brown, the upper tail-coverts tipped with blacldsh, the lower with 
bluish grey ; the three outer tail-feathers with a subterminal baud of blackish, and the two outer pairs bluish at 
the base and tips. 
Young (nestling : Travancore). “Warm brown above, with all the feathers except those of the head and quills broadly 
tipped with chestnut, and with a coppery-green lustre on the scapulars and the outer webs of the tertiaries and 
later secondaries, and with all the primaries margined with chestnut; below duskily barred with chestnut.” 
(Bourdillon.) 
Ohs. I have not had an opportunity of comparing South-Indian examples of this Pigeon with those in my collection 
from Cejdon, and I am therefore unable to say whether such slight differences exist betv'een the birds from these 
two localities as are perceptible in those which I have examined from a number of other places throughout its 
range in the Malay archipelago. As regards the size of those nearest to Ceylon on the mainland, viz. specimens 
from South Travancore, Mr. Bourdillon gives us the following data : — Male, length 10‘25 inches, wing 6‘1, tail 
3’75, tarsus 1'06 ; female, length lO'O inches, w’ing 5-75, tail 3'75. These dimensions exceed considerably those 
of every Ceylonese specimen I have measured ; the bird is, however, a variable one in size as well as in its tints, 
and these may have been exceptionally large examples ; a female from North India, collected by Capt. Pinwell, 
corresponds fairly with a specimen in my collection. Mr. Hume remarks that Thayetmyo specimens are identical 
with those from all parts of India, Tenasserim, the Andamans, and the Nicobars. The bird from the latter region 
was separated by Bonaparte as C. augusla; but Mr. Hume fails to find any valid difference in it from those 
obtained in the Andamans or India ; and he remarks that the specimens from these islands have the rump-bands 
somewhat less strongly marked than in continental birds, and the white frontal band somew'hat narrower. He 
further states (what I have myself observed in Ceylon specimens) that the bluish-gi-ey stripe down the centre 
of the hind neck is an uncertain chsiracter, and has no reference to the breeding-season. 
The Javan bird, C. javanica, Gmelin, which Wallace united (Z. c.) with the species inhabiting Borneo, Plores, Lombok, and 
Sumatra, was originally considered distinct ; but it is now admitted to be identical with the Indian, Malaccan, 
Pormosan, and Philippine form. Examples I have seen from East Java are more purplish on the under surface 
than my Ceylon sldns, the abdomen is not so pale, and there is more of the bronze tipping to the feathers of the 
upper rump-band. In one specimen the greeji of the back is less illumined with bronze : d > wing 5-8 inches, 
tail 4'0. The Celebean bird is likewise identical with the Javan. 
Allied species are; — G . cyaneopileata, Bonnaterre, = C. moluccensis, G. E. Gray; C. timorensis, Bonap. ; G. stephani, 
Homb. & Jaeq. 
G. cyaneopileata is nearest to the Javan and Indian bird. It is redder on the throat, neck, and breast, and the abdomen 
is darker ; back more coppery, and the inner webs of the quills more covered with cinnamon-red and also of a 
brighter hue ; B , wing 5-7 inches. The female, which I have not seen, is said by Wallace to have the head and 
upper part of the back earthy browm. 
C. timorensis is a larger bird, and the male has no white forehead or eye-stripe, the head being vinaceous down to the 
base of the bill ; back as in 0. indica • the primaries with more cinnamon-colour, extending to the outer w'obs of the 
shorter feathers ; lower parts redder than in our bird : wing 6-2 inches. The female has the head and hind neck 
coppery brown and the forehead ashy ; tail coppery chestnut-colour, the lateral feathers bluish grey, with dark 
terminal bands. 
G. stephani is ashy chestnut beneath ; upper tail-coverts and tail chestnut-red ; an olive-black rump-band, bounded 
above by a fulvous band, and beneath by a rufesceut one ; forehead white ; back chestnut ; vving, d , d’d inches. 
This is a very distinct species inhabiting North Celebes. 
G. liomhroni, another species described by "W allace, is smaller than G. stephani ; “ the forehead is slate-brown, and the 
low’er back black, with two yellowish bands ; middle and larger wing-coverts and ends of the tertiaries golden 
green.” 
Distribution. — This beautiful Pigeon is chiefly an inhabitant of the damp forests and well-watered wooded 
districts of Ceylon; but yet its habits are so essentially sylvan that it is found all through the forests of the 
northern half of the island. In the woods and jungles of the Western Province it is a common bird, being 
especially partial to bamboo-cheena, and it is consequently abundant throughout Safiragam and in the well- 
covered hills of the south-western portion of the island. In forest districts, such as the Kukul Korale and 
Pasdun Korale, it is very numerous. It is well diffused throughout the Central Province, being found up to 
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