PAJLFMBirS JEIUPBHNSTONEI
PALUMBUS ELPHINSTONEI .
Elphinstone’s Wood Pigeon.
Ptilinopus Elphinstonii, Sykes in Proc. o f Comm, o f Sci. and Corr. of Zool. Soc. part ii. p. 149.
Coltmba Elphinstonii, Jerd. 111. Ind. Orn. pi. xlviii.—-Blyth, Drafts o f a Faun. Ind. Columbidae, p. 22.
Carpophaga Elphinstoni, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol.,ii. p. 469, Carpophaga, sp. 27.
Columba Elpkinstonei, Fras. Zool. Typ. pi. 59.
Palumbus Elpkinstonei, Blyth, Cat. o f Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 233.
S p e c im e n s of this fine Pigeon having been procured in various parts of India, we may fairly conclude that
it is very generally dispersed over the Peninsula; Mr. Layard and other travellers have also found it in
the island of Ceylon; the Cingalese examples, however, differ from those obtained on the continent in
having a more rufous style o f colouring, and, if I mistake not, in being of a somewhat smaller size; yet I
cannot regard such slight differences as specific, but merely as indicative of a local variation, such as we
know to occur among other species.
Of its habits and economy, little is at present known, but they doubtless very much resemble those of its
near ally the common Wood Pigeon o f Europe, Palumbus torquatus.
Colonel Sykes, who gave the name o f Elphinstonii to this species, in honour of the Honourable Mount-
Stuart Elphinstone, formerly Governor of Bombay, states in his valuable “ Catalogue of the Birds observed
in the Dukhun ’’ above referred to, that it “ is rare, and only met with in the dense woods of the Ghauts.
It is not gregarious, flies with great rapidity, and feeds upon stony fruits. The sexes are alike in plumage.
The lateral skin of the toes is very much developed.”
" This handsome Pigeon,” says Mr. Jerdon, “ I have only hitherto found in the dense woods on the
summit of the Neelgherries; but as Colonel Sykes found it in the woods of the western Ghauts, I have no
doubt that hereafter it will be ascertained to inhabit all the higher parts of that range of mountains. It is
found singly or in small parties of four or five. It generally keeps in the woods, living on various fruits
and berries, but it occasionally descends to the ground to procure seeds and shelled mollusks (Bttlimt), the
remains of which I have frequently found in its crop. I am unacquainted.with its call or nidification,
though it certainly breeds on the Neelgherries.”
Head, neck and under Surface dark ashy grey, with the fore part of the neck and breast glossed with
green; feathers at the back of the neck black, tipped with white, forming a nuchal mark ; upper surface
chestnut-brown, glossed with purple and green; primaries and tail dull black; irides yellow; bill red at
the base, yellow at the tip ; feet crimson.
The Plate represents the bird o f the natural size, from a sketch suggested by Mr. Wolf.