(9) OSMOTRERON BISINCTA DOMVILLII (Blyth).
THE ORANGE-BREASTED GREEN PIGEON.
Vinago bisincta (part) Jerdon, Madr. J.L.S., p. 13 (1840); (part) id., 111. I. Orn., pl. 21. Vinago unicolor (part) id., Madr. J.L.S., XII p. 14 (1840). Treron bisincta Blyth, J.A.S.B., XIV p. 851 ; id., Cat,, p. 229. Osmotreron bisincta Bp., Con. Av., II p. 12; Jerdon, B.I., III p. 449; Godw.-Aus., J.A.S.B., XXXIX pt. n p. 272; Ball, Str. Feath., II p. 423; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 493 ; id., Str. Feath., Ill p. 162 ; Blyth and Wal., B. Burma, p. 144; rmstrong, Str. Feath., IV p. 337 ; Oates, ib., V p. 163 ; Hume and Dav., ib., VI p. 411; Hume, ib., VI p. 414; Ball, ib., VH p. 224; Hume, ib., VIII p. 109; id., Cat. no. 774 ; Hume and Inglis, Str. Feath., IX p. 257 ; Oates, ib., X p. 235 ; Dav., ib., p. 406 ; Oates, B. Burma, II p. 308 ; id., Hume, Nests and Eggs, 2nd ed., II p. 374; id., Str. Feath., XI p. 291 ; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 57; Blanf., Avi. Brit. I., IV p. 11 ; Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 54 ; Oates, Cat. Eggs B.M., I p. 82 ; Barnes, J.B.N.H.S., V p. 328 ; Davidson, ib., IX p. 489 ; Stuart Baker, ib., X p. 363 Inglis, ib., XI p. 475 ; Davidson, ib., XII p. 61 ; Macdonald, ib., XVII p. 495 ; Stuart Baker, ib., p. 971 ; Harington, ib., XIX p. 308. Osmotreron domvillei Blyth, B. Burma, p. 144. Osmotreron domvillii Swinh., Ibis 1870.
Vernacular Names. Ghitta putsa guwa, Tel.; Gnu, Burmese; Daorep kashiba, Cachari; Inrui-gahergu, Naga; Harial, Hindi; Haitha, Assamese.
Description.—
Adult male. Fore-head, lores, and crown as far back as the back of the eye, dull yellowish-green, changing into a beautiful blue-grey on the nape, hind-neck, and upper-back where it in turn changes into the brownish -green of the back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts and smaller wing-coverts; these last and the rump are rather less brown, and the upper tail-coverts somewhat more brown than that of the other parts. Tail dark ashy-grey with a broad terminal band of pale grey, and a dark, almost black subterminal band, very broad and dark on the outermost feathers, and less distinct and narrower on the central ones. Chin, throat, and fore- neck green, more yellow on the chin and the centre of the throat; a broad band of lilac across the breast and bending backwards towards the shoulders of the wing so as to nearly enclose a second broad band of orange ; lower-breast pale yellowish-green, changing into bright king's yellow on the abdomen; tibial plumes yellow, splashed with dark green and grey; under tail-coverts cinnamon, the outermost feathers with pale yellowish edges. Quills nearly black, the outer primaries narrowly edged with bright pale yellow; the inner-seeondaries the same, but gradually changing to the same colour as the back on the innermost, which are also broadly edged with yellow on the outer webs; greater-coverts black with broad margins of pale king's yellow, median-coverts green with the same border on a few of the largest and outermost feathers. Winglet black; lower surface of wing, flanks, and axillaries grey.
Colours of soft parts. " The legs and feet vary from purplish pink to lake red, the irides have an inner ring, at times not very apparent, of deep blue, and an outer one of salmon pink, the eyelids bluish or pale plumbeous. The bill is pale bluish, the basal portion darker." (Hume.)
The legs and feet are often almost a eoral-red with paler soles, and claws a pale horny-brown. The inner ring of the his varies from bright pale ultramarine to a deep blue, and the outer part from vivid salmon-pink to a deep crimson-pink. The bill is very often more of a pale green than a pale blue, more especially in the central portion. The eyelids and bare orbital skin are a bright lavender-blue.
Adult female. Differs from the male hi having no lilae and orange bands across the breast; hi having the blue-grey of the upper parts duller, darker and less in extent, and in having the under tail-coverts pale dull cinnamon, much mottled with dull greenish on the inner webs, and with the whitish- yellow on the outer webs still wider. The amount of green on the vent and tibial plumes also, is perhaps greater. I eannot see that the back, as is sometimes alleged, is either more or less green in the female than it is in the
male.
Colours of soft parts. Similar to the same parts in the male, but the eyelids and orbital skin are somewhat more livid and less bright in tint.
Young birds of both sexes in this, as in other Green Pigeons, have the eyes a watery pale brown, but acquire the double-coloured his in the first autumn-moult, though it is not even then quite so vivid in colour as in the adult. The feet also are duller coloured and with less lake, and the eyelids and orbital-skin are of a livid colour.
Measurements.
Length about 11.5 hi., tail 3.75, wing 6.25, tarsus .85, bill from gape .95. Females rather less " (Blanford).
The huge series of this Pigeon in the British Museum Collection (excluding birds from Ceylon and Madras) give wing-measurements which range from 6.08 in. ( = 154.4 mm.) to 6.70 ( = 170.2 mm.) This latter, however, is an extraordinarily large bird, and the next biggest is only 6.55 in. ( = 166.2 mm.). The difference between the sexes is not much, and the biggest females far exceed in size the smallest males, but on an average the female has a wing not quite .25 in. (= 6.35 mm.) shorter than that of the male.
Assam and Burmese birds are, on the whole, larger than those from Bengal and China, but they well overlap one another and cannot be divided as ean the Ceylon and Southern Indian birds. A very careful examination of the series of this Green Pigeon in the British Museum Collection shows, as has already been noted by Blanford and others, that in the extreme south of India and Ceylon there is a much smaller race which appears to be well worthy of subspecific rank. Un- fortunately, amongst the birds I have been able to examine, though there are a fair number from Ceylon there are very few from Madras; but from the material available it would appear that the drop in size between the northern and southern races is very sudden.
The biggest male bird from Madras or Ceylon has a wing of 5.72 in. ( = 145.3 mm.) whilst the smallest female from anywhere else has one of 6.08 in. ( = 154.4 mm.) ; thus, whilst the average bird in Ceylon and Madras has a wing more than i in. smaller than the average northern birds, the biggest from the former area is still more than J in. smaller than the smallest from the latter.
The type-birds 3 and $ of bisincta are the two described by Jerdon from Madras, so that the northern species must bear another name, and the earliest available appears to be that of domvillii, given to a Hainan bird by Swinhoe in 1870.
Distribution.
Orissa, the whole of Bengal in suitable localities, Assam, through Chittagong into northern Burma, and thence through the whole of that country into Hainan and Cochin China, and south into the Malay Peninsula. Beavan recorded it as common in parts of Chutia Nagpur, but no one else has found it there since his time, and it seems to be restricted to the wooded parts of Manbhum and Purulia. I once saw a small flock of them hi Hazaribagh of which one was shot, but this is the only time they
have been seen in that district, and it is probable that throughout the dry zone in cast-central India they only occur as very occasional stragglers from the more humid countries adjoining, and do not enter at all into the western dry country. Harington reports it from the dry zone in Burma, but apparently even there it is more rare than in the wetter climate north and south.
Oates, in Hume's Nests and Eggs, writes : " It is entirely unknown in Khandesh, Goozerat, Kattywar, Sind, the Punjab, Rajputana, and the North-West Provinces, and is only known in the Sub-Himalayan Terais of Behar and Oudh, and the Eastern forest-regions of the Central Provinces. It is a purely Indo-Burmese type, not to be found, I think, in India out of the 60 in. rainfall regions."
Nidification.
Throughout its area of habitation, the Orange-breasted Green Pigeon is resident and breeds, though it may move locally with the seasons ; and it also appears to move higher into the hills and further into the plains in July and August, at the end of the breeding-season.
In the hills north and south of the Brahmapootra Valley it breeds regularly up to an elevation of about 4,000 ft., and occasionally up to some 2,000 ft. higher than this. On the other hand, it also breeds throughout the plains where there is a sufficient forest and rainfall, and is quite common during the breeding-season even in the low-lying Sunderbunds, where the daily tides actually surround with salt water the trees on which they build. It is now over forty years since Blyth first discovered this bird breeding, and took its nest in the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta; but when I was there two years ago, in 1911, we were attracted, by the whistling of Green Pigeons, to the huge banyan tree which forms one of the well-known sights of the gardens, and there we saw a male bird " bowing and scraping " to his little mate : so evidently the spread of buildings for miles in all directions round these gardens has not yet driven it away.
The actions of the male Orange-breasted Green Pigeon when courting, are those of the genus generally. The bird puffs out its feathers and waddles up and down a bough, to and from the female, solemnly bobbing its head at regular intervals all the time—sometimes whistling its beautiful notes, sometimes croaking and crooning in an undertone which it considers even more seductive and musical. The female is content, as a rule, to feed whilst her consort shows off, but she, too, will now and then indulge in a clumsy step-dance, and bow and whistle in response to her mate's protestations of love.
Over most of its habitat this Green Pigeon is an early breeder : Oates found it breeding in Pegu from March to May ; from the Malay States I have received eggs laid in January, February, and March; in Lower Burma it appears to breed principally hi February and March ; Irwin took eggs in Hill Tipperah in April, and Hodgson records its breeding-season in Nepal as being from April to June ; in Dacca I found it breeding in March, and throughout the plains districts of Bengal. I think March and April are the principal breeding-months, but in the hill-ranges the favourite breeding- season is from early April to late May. It must, however, be remembered that all Green Pigeons are very irregular in their breeding-time, and doubtless many have two broods, for though I have often taken eggs of this species in early March, I have equally often taken fresh eggs hi late August.
The nest is a typical Green Pigeon's nest, but is even more flimsy than most. Writing long ago in the Bombay Natural History Journal about this bird, 1 recorded : " The nest of this species seems to be about the most primitive of all Pigeons' nests. I have seen some which it would appear ridiculous to suppose capable of holding a young brood, and how they do succeed in so doing I cannot understand. I took one nest in 1893, in which I do not think there were more than about a score of twigs used, and gaps showed through the nest fully half an inch in diameter, only just small enough not to allow of the eggs falling through."
They do not seem at all particular where they make their nests, but generally select a site either inside fairly thick jungle or forest of some kind, or else just on the outskirts of it. It is quite exceptional for the nest to be placed in an isolated tree or clump of trees, though it may now and then be taken in the large mango-orchards in Bengal, especially if these have been somewhat neglected, and have a good deal of undergrowth in them.
I have seen these nests placed well up in big trees twenty, twenty-five, and even thirty feet from the ground. Others have been placed hi small saplings, thick high bushes, and in bamboo-clumps hardly beyond the reach of a tall man ; whilst yet a few others have been built in cane-brakes in swamps, in bushes and dwarf bamboos not four feet above the land or the water of the swamps in which the cane-brakes grow.
The nest takes but very few days to construct, both birds joining in the work, the male doing most of the carrying of the twigs and the female placing them in position. They work for a few hours only morning and evening, and during the rest of the day feed and doze. The nest made, the two eggs are generally laid with an interval of one day between, but sometimes, on consecutive days ; and from this time onwards the male bird accepts all the responsibilities of his position, taking half the duties of incubation, feeding his wife with occasional dainties, and cheering her with his whistling when she is sitting.
Incubation takes, I think, twelve or fourteen days ; but I have never made quite sure of this, and it may be a day more or less according to the weather, which affects incubation to a great extent.
The eggs are, of course, the same soft, smooth white like those of the rest of the family, and the average size of 100 eggs is 1.1 in. ( = 27.9 mm.) by .89 ( - 22.6 mm.).
This beautiful Green Pigeon is extremely abundant throughout the Province of Assam, alike in the plains and in the hills up to about 2,500 ft., thence becoming more scarce up to about 4,000 ft., above which it is rare. It does however sometimes occur up to at least 6,000 ft for I have shot one of a pair seen at the Peak, near Shillong in the Khasia Hills, in heavy rhododendron and oak forest, and have occasionally also seen it in the highest ranges to the east of the North Cachar Hills round and about Hungrum.
It is principally a bird of forest-country and prefers above all the vast stretches of forest-land running along the foot of the Himalayas, and for some few miles into the adjoining plains, especially frequenting such places as are broken up by a certain amount of cultivation and scattered villages. At the same time, wherever there are trees bearing fruit for them to eat, these birds will also be found, except in the most
open of plains, and occasionally they may be met with even in clumps of fruit-trees and village orchards—or topes, as they are called—far from any forest.
Around villages and in the more open parts of their habitat they will be found resorting to their feeding-places from daybreak until 8 or 10 a.m., and again in the cool of the evening ; but in forest-country and about villages standing in heavily wooded tracts they will feed more or less throughout the day, except for two to four hours of the hottest time, when they retire to the densest foliaged forest-trees for then- siesta. In Gunjong, North Cachar Hills, these birds came into my garden more frequently than any other Green Pigeon, and used to feed greedily on a kind of fig of which there were two or three trees bearing fruit nearly all the year round. They were also very partial to the guava-fruit which, when ripe and soft, they tore to pieces with their bills, swallowing huge bits as big, if not bigger, than their own heads. A more objectionable habit they had was that of getting into the orange-groves and pulling off the tiny oranges when about the size of small marbles. I don't think they ate many of these, for after a flock had visited and been frightened away from a grove, a large number of these little oranges were to be found lying under the trees ; and it really looked as if, after they had tasted the fruit and found it unpalatable, they had then set to work to mischievously destroy what they did not care to eat.
They are rather shy birds, and if seated in scantily covered trees generally take to flight before one gets close enough for a shot, but if in very densely covered ones they often trust to the foliage screening then green bodies from view, and will remain where they are, absolutely still and silent, until the intruder departs, or curiosity gets the better
of then nervousness, and they commence to move about in the endea- vour to get a better view of him. Beavan found them in Manbhum, feeding on the fruit of the nux vomica in company with other Pigeons.
Then movements when feeding are very slow and methodical, and though they will occasionally fly from one part of a big tree to another, they usually make their way by climbing hand over hand— or I suppose one should say foot over foot—along the boughs and branches. They are quarrelsome birds, of course—all Pigeons and Doves are—and resent any other bird, Pigeon or other kind, coming too close to them as they feed. If thus disturbed they open their mouths wide and emit a sort of hissing croak ; and if this awe-inspiring sound is not sufficient to induce the other bird to go, they clamber up to within a foot or two of him, and then launch themselves at him, endeavouring to beat him over the head with their wings. They also peck one another freely, and will try to get a firm hold of the feathers of the other bird's head; and this once obtained, will shake and pull until the feathers come out, or the opponent gets in a smack with his wing hard enough to make the other leave go. I have often seen males in the early spring, when most of the fighting goes on, with their heads quite raw and bleeding ; but at the same time the most serious injuries are probably caused by blows with the shoulder of the wing, which are given with quite sufficient force to stun.
They have quite a large range of conversational notes, covering much bad language, and not a little which we may hope to be good; but their ordinary notes are the sweet whistling ones common to all the Green Pigeons. Possibly the whisthng of the Orange-headed Green Pigeon is not quite so melodious as that of some others, such as the Pin-tailed and Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, but it is very sweet and mellow—now rising/now falling, but never anything but soft and full : never shrill, and never out of tune. Davison says that it has a lower and more jerky note than C. viridifrons and a less-soft one than vernans and fulvicollis.
I don't think they assemble in such large flocks as do some of their nearest relations, and even where most common, small flocks numbering from half a dozen to a dozen are most often seen, whilst flocks of over a score are quite exceptional. It is not unusual, also, to see a single bird of this species, or indeed two or three of them, consorting with a flock of Treron nepalensis (the Thick-billed Green Pigeon), or with one of the forms of the Grey-headed Green Pigeons, for although quarrelsome, it is very sociable, and it would always rather fight with a pal than be left by itself hi peace.
Its flight is much like that of the two Pigeons just mentioned, perhaps not quite so fast or strong as either, but the difference, if any, is so slight that it makes it no easier to kill, and as a sporting-bird it is practically on a par with the others, whilst in beauty it ranks even higher than they do. In Assam it always forms a considerable proportion of the general bag at large shoots, being outnumbered invariably only by the Grey-headed Pigeon, equalling in number the Thick-billed, and generally more numerous than the rest.
THE ORANGE-BREASTED GREEN PIGEON.
Vinago bisincta (part) Jerdon, Madr. J.L.S., p. 13 (1840); (part) id., 111. I. Orn., pl. 21. Vinago unicolor (part) id., Madr. J.L.S., XII p. 14 (1840). Treron bisincta Blyth, J.A.S.B., XIV p. 851 ; id., Cat,, p. 229. Osmotreron bisincta Bp., Con. Av., II p. 12; Jerdon, B.I., III p. 449; Godw.-Aus., J.A.S.B., XXXIX pt. n p. 272; Ball, Str. Feath., II p. 423; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 493 ; id., Str. Feath., Ill p. 162 ; Blyth and Wal., B. Burma, p. 144; rmstrong, Str. Feath., IV p. 337 ; Oates, ib., V p. 163 ; Hume and Dav., ib., VI p. 411; Hume, ib., VI p. 414; Ball, ib., VH p. 224; Hume, ib., VIII p. 109; id., Cat. no. 774 ; Hume and Inglis, Str. Feath., IX p. 257 ; Oates, ib., X p. 235 ; Dav., ib., p. 406 ; Oates, B. Burma, II p. 308 ; id., Hume, Nests and Eggs, 2nd ed., II p. 374; id., Str. Feath., XI p. 291 ; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 57; Blanf., Avi. Brit. I., IV p. 11 ; Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 54 ; Oates, Cat. Eggs B.M., I p. 82 ; Barnes, J.B.N.H.S., V p. 328 ; Davidson, ib., IX p. 489 ; Stuart Baker, ib., X p. 363 Inglis, ib., XI p. 475 ; Davidson, ib., XII p. 61 ; Macdonald, ib., XVII p. 495 ; Stuart Baker, ib., p. 971 ; Harington, ib., XIX p. 308. Osmotreron domvillei Blyth, B. Burma, p. 144. Osmotreron domvillii Swinh., Ibis 1870.
Vernacular Names. Ghitta putsa guwa, Tel.; Gnu, Burmese; Daorep kashiba, Cachari; Inrui-gahergu, Naga; Harial, Hindi; Haitha, Assamese.
Description.—
Adult male. Fore-head, lores, and crown as far back as the back of the eye, dull yellowish-green, changing into a beautiful blue-grey on the nape, hind-neck, and upper-back where it in turn changes into the brownish -green of the back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts and smaller wing-coverts; these last and the rump are rather less brown, and the upper tail-coverts somewhat more brown than that of the other parts. Tail dark ashy-grey with a broad terminal band of pale grey, and a dark, almost black subterminal band, very broad and dark on the outermost feathers, and less distinct and narrower on the central ones. Chin, throat, and fore- neck green, more yellow on the chin and the centre of the throat; a broad band of lilac across the breast and bending backwards towards the shoulders of the wing so as to nearly enclose a second broad band of orange ; lower-breast pale yellowish-green, changing into bright king's yellow on the abdomen; tibial plumes yellow, splashed with dark green and grey; under tail-coverts cinnamon, the outermost feathers with pale yellowish edges. Quills nearly black, the outer primaries narrowly edged with bright pale yellow; the inner-seeondaries the same, but gradually changing to the same colour as the back on the innermost, which are also broadly edged with yellow on the outer webs; greater-coverts black with broad margins of pale king's yellow, median-coverts green with the same border on a few of the largest and outermost feathers. Winglet black; lower surface of wing, flanks, and axillaries grey.
Colours of soft parts. " The legs and feet vary from purplish pink to lake red, the irides have an inner ring, at times not very apparent, of deep blue, and an outer one of salmon pink, the eyelids bluish or pale plumbeous. The bill is pale bluish, the basal portion darker." (Hume.)
The legs and feet are often almost a eoral-red with paler soles, and claws a pale horny-brown. The inner ring of the his varies from bright pale ultramarine to a deep blue, and the outer part from vivid salmon-pink to a deep crimson-pink. The bill is very often more of a pale green than a pale blue, more especially in the central portion. The eyelids and bare orbital skin are a bright lavender-blue.
Adult female. Differs from the male hi having no lilae and orange bands across the breast; hi having the blue-grey of the upper parts duller, darker and less in extent, and in having the under tail-coverts pale dull cinnamon, much mottled with dull greenish on the inner webs, and with the whitish- yellow on the outer webs still wider. The amount of green on the vent and tibial plumes also, is perhaps greater. I eannot see that the back, as is sometimes alleged, is either more or less green in the female than it is in the
male.
Colours of soft parts. Similar to the same parts in the male, but the eyelids and orbital skin are somewhat more livid and less bright in tint.
Young birds of both sexes in this, as in other Green Pigeons, have the eyes a watery pale brown, but acquire the double-coloured his in the first autumn-moult, though it is not even then quite so vivid in colour as in the adult. The feet also are duller coloured and with less lake, and the eyelids and orbital-skin are of a livid colour.
Measurements.
Length about 11.5 hi., tail 3.75, wing 6.25, tarsus .85, bill from gape .95. Females rather less " (Blanford).
The huge series of this Pigeon in the British Museum Collection (excluding birds from Ceylon and Madras) give wing-measurements which range from 6.08 in. ( = 154.4 mm.) to 6.70 ( = 170.2 mm.) This latter, however, is an extraordinarily large bird, and the next biggest is only 6.55 in. ( = 166.2 mm.). The difference between the sexes is not much, and the biggest females far exceed in size the smallest males, but on an average the female has a wing not quite .25 in. (= 6.35 mm.) shorter than that of the male.
Assam and Burmese birds are, on the whole, larger than those from Bengal and China, but they well overlap one another and cannot be divided as ean the Ceylon and Southern Indian birds. A very careful examination of the series of this Green Pigeon in the British Museum Collection shows, as has already been noted by Blanford and others, that in the extreme south of India and Ceylon there is a much smaller race which appears to be well worthy of subspecific rank. Un- fortunately, amongst the birds I have been able to examine, though there are a fair number from Ceylon there are very few from Madras; but from the material available it would appear that the drop in size between the northern and southern races is very sudden.
The biggest male bird from Madras or Ceylon has a wing of 5.72 in. ( = 145.3 mm.) whilst the smallest female from anywhere else has one of 6.08 in. ( = 154.4 mm.) ; thus, whilst the average bird in Ceylon and Madras has a wing more than i in. smaller than the average northern birds, the biggest from the former area is still more than J in. smaller than the smallest from the latter.
The type-birds 3 and $ of bisincta are the two described by Jerdon from Madras, so that the northern species must bear another name, and the earliest available appears to be that of domvillii, given to a Hainan bird by Swinhoe in 1870.
Distribution.
Orissa, the whole of Bengal in suitable localities, Assam, through Chittagong into northern Burma, and thence through the whole of that country into Hainan and Cochin China, and south into the Malay Peninsula. Beavan recorded it as common in parts of Chutia Nagpur, but no one else has found it there since his time, and it seems to be restricted to the wooded parts of Manbhum and Purulia. I once saw a small flock of them hi Hazaribagh of which one was shot, but this is the only time they
have been seen in that district, and it is probable that throughout the dry zone in cast-central India they only occur as very occasional stragglers from the more humid countries adjoining, and do not enter at all into the western dry country. Harington reports it from the dry zone in Burma, but apparently even there it is more rare than in the wetter climate north and south.
Oates, in Hume's Nests and Eggs, writes : " It is entirely unknown in Khandesh, Goozerat, Kattywar, Sind, the Punjab, Rajputana, and the North-West Provinces, and is only known in the Sub-Himalayan Terais of Behar and Oudh, and the Eastern forest-regions of the Central Provinces. It is a purely Indo-Burmese type, not to be found, I think, in India out of the 60 in. rainfall regions."
Nidification.
Throughout its area of habitation, the Orange-breasted Green Pigeon is resident and breeds, though it may move locally with the seasons ; and it also appears to move higher into the hills and further into the plains in July and August, at the end of the breeding-season.
In the hills north and south of the Brahmapootra Valley it breeds regularly up to an elevation of about 4,000 ft., and occasionally up to some 2,000 ft. higher than this. On the other hand, it also breeds throughout the plains where there is a sufficient forest and rainfall, and is quite common during the breeding-season even in the low-lying Sunderbunds, where the daily tides actually surround with salt water the trees on which they build. It is now over forty years since Blyth first discovered this bird breeding, and took its nest in the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta; but when I was there two years ago, in 1911, we were attracted, by the whistling of Green Pigeons, to the huge banyan tree which forms one of the well-known sights of the gardens, and there we saw a male bird " bowing and scraping " to his little mate : so evidently the spread of buildings for miles in all directions round these gardens has not yet driven it away.
The actions of the male Orange-breasted Green Pigeon when courting, are those of the genus generally. The bird puffs out its feathers and waddles up and down a bough, to and from the female, solemnly bobbing its head at regular intervals all the time—sometimes whistling its beautiful notes, sometimes croaking and crooning in an undertone which it considers even more seductive and musical. The female is content, as a rule, to feed whilst her consort shows off, but she, too, will now and then indulge in a clumsy step-dance, and bow and whistle in response to her mate's protestations of love.
Over most of its habitat this Green Pigeon is an early breeder : Oates found it breeding in Pegu from March to May ; from the Malay States I have received eggs laid in January, February, and March; in Lower Burma it appears to breed principally hi February and March ; Irwin took eggs in Hill Tipperah in April, and Hodgson records its breeding-season in Nepal as being from April to June ; in Dacca I found it breeding in March, and throughout the plains districts of Bengal. I think March and April are the principal breeding-months, but in the hill-ranges the favourite breeding- season is from early April to late May. It must, however, be remembered that all Green Pigeons are very irregular in their breeding-time, and doubtless many have two broods, for though I have often taken eggs of this species in early March, I have equally often taken fresh eggs hi late August.
The nest is a typical Green Pigeon's nest, but is even more flimsy than most. Writing long ago in the Bombay Natural History Journal about this bird, 1 recorded : " The nest of this species seems to be about the most primitive of all Pigeons' nests. I have seen some which it would appear ridiculous to suppose capable of holding a young brood, and how they do succeed in so doing I cannot understand. I took one nest in 1893, in which I do not think there were more than about a score of twigs used, and gaps showed through the nest fully half an inch in diameter, only just small enough not to allow of the eggs falling through."
They do not seem at all particular where they make their nests, but generally select a site either inside fairly thick jungle or forest of some kind, or else just on the outskirts of it. It is quite exceptional for the nest to be placed in an isolated tree or clump of trees, though it may now and then be taken in the large mango-orchards in Bengal, especially if these have been somewhat neglected, and have a good deal of undergrowth in them.
I have seen these nests placed well up in big trees twenty, twenty-five, and even thirty feet from the ground. Others have been placed hi small saplings, thick high bushes, and in bamboo-clumps hardly beyond the reach of a tall man ; whilst yet a few others have been built in cane-brakes in swamps, in bushes and dwarf bamboos not four feet above the land or the water of the swamps in which the cane-brakes grow.
The nest takes but very few days to construct, both birds joining in the work, the male doing most of the carrying of the twigs and the female placing them in position. They work for a few hours only morning and evening, and during the rest of the day feed and doze. The nest made, the two eggs are generally laid with an interval of one day between, but sometimes, on consecutive days ; and from this time onwards the male bird accepts all the responsibilities of his position, taking half the duties of incubation, feeding his wife with occasional dainties, and cheering her with his whistling when she is sitting.
Incubation takes, I think, twelve or fourteen days ; but I have never made quite sure of this, and it may be a day more or less according to the weather, which affects incubation to a great extent.
The eggs are, of course, the same soft, smooth white like those of the rest of the family, and the average size of 100 eggs is 1.1 in. ( = 27.9 mm.) by .89 ( - 22.6 mm.).
This beautiful Green Pigeon is extremely abundant throughout the Province of Assam, alike in the plains and in the hills up to about 2,500 ft., thence becoming more scarce up to about 4,000 ft., above which it is rare. It does however sometimes occur up to at least 6,000 ft for I have shot one of a pair seen at the Peak, near Shillong in the Khasia Hills, in heavy rhododendron and oak forest, and have occasionally also seen it in the highest ranges to the east of the North Cachar Hills round and about Hungrum.
It is principally a bird of forest-country and prefers above all the vast stretches of forest-land running along the foot of the Himalayas, and for some few miles into the adjoining plains, especially frequenting such places as are broken up by a certain amount of cultivation and scattered villages. At the same time, wherever there are trees bearing fruit for them to eat, these birds will also be found, except in the most
open of plains, and occasionally they may be met with even in clumps of fruit-trees and village orchards—or topes, as they are called—far from any forest.
Around villages and in the more open parts of their habitat they will be found resorting to their feeding-places from daybreak until 8 or 10 a.m., and again in the cool of the evening ; but in forest-country and about villages standing in heavily wooded tracts they will feed more or less throughout the day, except for two to four hours of the hottest time, when they retire to the densest foliaged forest-trees for then- siesta. In Gunjong, North Cachar Hills, these birds came into my garden more frequently than any other Green Pigeon, and used to feed greedily on a kind of fig of which there were two or three trees bearing fruit nearly all the year round. They were also very partial to the guava-fruit which, when ripe and soft, they tore to pieces with their bills, swallowing huge bits as big, if not bigger, than their own heads. A more objectionable habit they had was that of getting into the orange-groves and pulling off the tiny oranges when about the size of small marbles. I don't think they ate many of these, for after a flock had visited and been frightened away from a grove, a large number of these little oranges were to be found lying under the trees ; and it really looked as if, after they had tasted the fruit and found it unpalatable, they had then set to work to mischievously destroy what they did not care to eat.
They are rather shy birds, and if seated in scantily covered trees generally take to flight before one gets close enough for a shot, but if in very densely covered ones they often trust to the foliage screening then green bodies from view, and will remain where they are, absolutely still and silent, until the intruder departs, or curiosity gets the better
of then nervousness, and they commence to move about in the endea- vour to get a better view of him. Beavan found them in Manbhum, feeding on the fruit of the nux vomica in company with other Pigeons.
Then movements when feeding are very slow and methodical, and though they will occasionally fly from one part of a big tree to another, they usually make their way by climbing hand over hand— or I suppose one should say foot over foot—along the boughs and branches. They are quarrelsome birds, of course—all Pigeons and Doves are—and resent any other bird, Pigeon or other kind, coming too close to them as they feed. If thus disturbed they open their mouths wide and emit a sort of hissing croak ; and if this awe-inspiring sound is not sufficient to induce the other bird to go, they clamber up to within a foot or two of him, and then launch themselves at him, endeavouring to beat him over the head with their wings. They also peck one another freely, and will try to get a firm hold of the feathers of the other bird's head; and this once obtained, will shake and pull until the feathers come out, or the opponent gets in a smack with his wing hard enough to make the other leave go. I have often seen males in the early spring, when most of the fighting goes on, with their heads quite raw and bleeding ; but at the same time the most serious injuries are probably caused by blows with the shoulder of the wing, which are given with quite sufficient force to stun.
They have quite a large range of conversational notes, covering much bad language, and not a little which we may hope to be good; but their ordinary notes are the sweet whistling ones common to all the Green Pigeons. Possibly the whisthng of the Orange-headed Green Pigeon is not quite so melodious as that of some others, such as the Pin-tailed and Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, but it is very sweet and mellow—now rising/now falling, but never anything but soft and full : never shrill, and never out of tune. Davison says that it has a lower and more jerky note than C. viridifrons and a less-soft one than vernans and fulvicollis.
I don't think they assemble in such large flocks as do some of their nearest relations, and even where most common, small flocks numbering from half a dozen to a dozen are most often seen, whilst flocks of over a score are quite exceptional. It is not unusual, also, to see a single bird of this species, or indeed two or three of them, consorting with a flock of Treron nepalensis (the Thick-billed Green Pigeon), or with one of the forms of the Grey-headed Green Pigeons, for although quarrelsome, it is very sociable, and it would always rather fight with a pal than be left by itself hi peace.
Its flight is much like that of the two Pigeons just mentioned, perhaps not quite so fast or strong as either, but the difference, if any, is so slight that it makes it no easier to kill, and as a sporting-bird it is practically on a par with the others, whilst in beauty it ranks even higher than they do. In Assam it always forms a considerable proportion of the general bag at large shoots, being outnumbered invariably only by the Grey-headed Pigeon, equalling in number the Thick-billed, and generally more numerous than the rest.
