OSMOTEEEON BICINCTA. 
(THE ORANGE-BEEASTED GREEN PIGEON.) 
Vinago hicincta, Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1840, xii. p. 13. no. 289; id. 111. 
Ind. Orn. pi. 21 (1847). 
Treron Ucincta (Jerd.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 229 (1849) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. 
p. 130 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 57. 
Osmotreron hicincta, Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 449 (1864); Beavan, Ibis, 1868, p. 371 ; Holdsw. 
P. Z. S. 1872, p. 465 ; Ball, Str. Peath. 1874, p. 423 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 25, et 1875, 
p. 399 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 493 ; Armstrong, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 337 ; Oates, 
ibid. 1877, p. 163 ; Hume & Davison, ibid. 1878, B. of Tenass. p. 411 ; Ball, ibid. vii. 
p. 224. 
The Parrot-Pigeon, Kelaart ; Orange-breasted Pigeon, Sportsmen in India ; Green Pigeon, 
Europeans in Ceylon. Chota hurrial. Hind., also KoMah ; CJiitta putsa Guwa, Telugu ; 
Patcha-prdd, lit. “ Green Pigeon,” Tamils in Ceylon ; Groene Puyven, Dutch in Ceylon, 
Layard. 
Batta-goya, lit. “ Bamboo-Pigeon,” Sinhalese. 
Adult male and female. Length 10-3 to 10-6 inches ; wing 5-5 to 5-8 ; tail 3-6 to 3-S ; tarsus 075 ; middle toe and 
claw !•! ; bill to gape 075 to 0-8. 
Females average smaller than males. ... t, , 
Iris carmine outwardly and beautiful cobalt-blue inwardly, divided by a narrow dark ring ; eyehd glaucous green ; bill 
with the soft basal half glaucous green, and the terminal part pale blue ; legs and feet coral-red or pink-red , 
claws bluish brown. 
Hale. Forehead, face, and throat yellowish green, becoming greener on the fore neck and crown, and passing thence 
into delicate grey-blue on the hind neck and upper part of the interscapulary region ; back, scapulars, wing-coverts, 
and tertials broivnish green, passing into greenish brown on the upper tail-coverts ; (juills deep cinereous blue or 
ashy black, the greater coverts and lowermost tertials with very deep sharply-defined primrose-yellow margins ; 
primaries with narrow yellowish-white margins ; secondaries narrowly edged with the same ; tail bluish ashy, with 
a median dark band, and the terminal portion lighter than the base and showing whitish beneath ; a narrow lilac 
baud across the upper part of chest, succeeded by a broader band of orange-sienna ; breast yellowish green, 
passing into yellow on the abdomen and into bluish cinereous on the flanks ; centres of tibial plumes ashy green, and 
the margins yellowish ; under tail-coverts cinnamon-red, the basal feathers with white outer edges ; under wing 
concolorous with the flanks. 
In some examples the under tail-coverts are much edged and tipped with albescent. 
Female. Has the blue of the hind neck of less extent, but darker than the male ; the upper surface is more overcast 
with brownish; the chest wants the lilac and orange bands; under tail-coverts whitish, the inner ivebs mostly 
cinnamon, and the bases of the feathers dappled with ashy. 
Young. Immature birds have the outer circle of the iris reddish yellow. In first plumage they are all clothed in the 
garb of the female ; and males, I believe, assume the light tints on the chest at the first moult, but the unaer 
tail-coverts do not become so bright as in the adult. 
Ohs. This species belongs to a small section of this beautiful genus, the members of which have an orange band on 
the chest. The other Indian members of the group are 0. vernans, Linn., 0. phayrei, Blyth, and 0. fulvicollis, Wagl. 
The Ceylonese representatives of this species seem to constitute almost a diminutive race, measuring constantly less in 
the wing than continental birds. They correspond, however, too w^ell in plumage (as far as I can judge from 
the small series with which I have compared them) with Indian birds to warrant my specifically separating them. 
