1836. Dendrophassa bicincta prsetermissa

(1836) Dendrophassa bioincta praetermissa Rob. & Kloss.
THE SIAM ORANGE-BREASTED GREEN PIGEON.
Dendrophasa bioincta praetermissa, Fauna B. I., Birds, 2nd ed, vol. v. p, 193.
Robinson and Kloss give the range of this subspecies as Assam, South of the Brahmapootra, Manipur, Bengal East of the Bay, all Burma and Siam.
This was one of the most common, perhaps the. most common, of all the Green Pigeons in Cachar and Sylhet, both in the plains and in the hills up to 4,000 feet, and I took many and saw many more nests and eggs.
This Pigeon is a forest bird, nine out of ten nests being found in dense evergreen forest, thick secondary growth in deserted cultivation, equally thick scrub, bush and small tree-jungle, or in bamboo-jungle. Occasionally nests may be found in small patches of scrub or in trees in the more open ground round villages. The nest is indistinguishable from that of other Green Pigeons and is generally placed in high bushes, small saplings or in bamboo-clumps, the bird breeding in the last-named rather more often than most Green Pigeons. The favourite height seems to be about 6 to 10 feet from the ground, and I have often seen them low enough down to be looked into without climbing. Very rarely they are built really high up, though I remember watching one bird on the nest at least 30 feet up in a high tree in forest. Sometimes the nests seem to be exceptionally fragile even for a Dove’s nest. I took one nest in 1893 which did not consist of more than a score or so of twigs, the interlacing of which was only just close enough to prevent the eggs falling through, and they could be seen quite plainly from below. How they stood the weight of young birds and parent was in¬comprehensible. The nests are generally placed on clusters of twigs or in interlacing branches but, in Bengal, where they sometimes breed in Mango-groves, the nests are frequently placed on big boughs where a few jutting twigs prevent them from being blown off. They are also rather partial to building their nests in cane-brakes in swamps, resting them on tangles of the cane, 5 to 7 feet or so above the mud and water.
As with all Green Pigeons, the season for breeding is long. Most birds breed from April to June, but I have taken them myself from March to September, In Burma Oates found it breeding in Pegu from March to May and Irwin took a nest with two eggs in Hill Tipperah in April.
Two hundred eggs average 29.5 x 22.8 mm. : maxima 31.5 x 23.5 mm. ; minima 27.3 x 21.6 mm.
Both birds incubate and the male takes his full share of the work, and, when not sitting, he often feeds his wife or sits alongside the nest and whistles softly to her. They are very quarrelsome birds, and I have never seen two nest close to one another, nor will they allow intruders of other species of birds to come too near to their nests. They sit very close, allowing one to almost touch them before they move and, if driven off, return very quickly to the nest.
The male also helps in constructing the nest, though the female does most of the building.
Incubation takes twelve to fourteen days, but I have never satisfactorily fixed the exact time. Display is that common to all the Green Pigeons, such as has already been described.