Page:The Common Birds of Bombay.djvu/169

Rh The Fruit Pigeons are green birds, which try to be parrots, but nature has stamped them doves. They live entirely on fruit, which they swallow whole, not having parrot beaks to carve it with. A very wide gape and a most capacious and elastic throat make amends to some extent for this defect, but still the Fruit Pigeon is obliged to do without mangoes and guavas. It finds compensation in the many varieties of wild figs which every forest in India produces in such liberal profusion. When a fig tree fruits, it fruits all over and all at once, offering a feast to the whole country such as a Rajah gives when an heir is born to his throne; and as mendicant Brahmins gather from distant provinces to the Rajah's feast, so the Fruit Pigeons from afar flock together to the tree while it lasts, and gorge themselves twice a day, first about 8 in the morning, and again about 4 in the afternoon. Then is the time to shoot them, for they are excellent eating, especially if their tough skins have been taken off before cooking. It is difficult at first to see them, for they are verdant like the foliage among which they sit strangely silent and motionless, bat after much peering among the leafy boughs you may catch sight of a tail oscillating slowly like a pendulum. There is a solitary green bird, sitting like a wooden figure. You fire and two fall and a dozen fly off. If you are as other men you will probably utter loud and naughty words, for if you had known there were so many birds you might easily have had a second shot at them as they flew. But if you are wise, you will rule your spirit and be still. For there may be a score of pigeons in the tree yet, and others will come in small parties from time to time, so that, with