Page:The Common Birds of Bombay.djvu/170

154 patience, you may make a very respectable bag before the feeding hour is over. Then remorse will have its turn, perhaps, as you gather up the fallen and see what perfect loveliness you have destroyed for the sake of your stomach. Body and wings are vivid green, becoming almost yellow on the breast and under parts, head and tail are pure dove gray, a slanting yellow bar lights up each wing, and the shoulder is finished off with a splash of lilac. The feet are orange yellow and the eyes carmine with a narrow outer ring of the most intense blue. This is Jerdon's Southern Green Pigeon (Crocopus chlorigaster), which is the common species of the Bombay Presidency. My reason for counting it among the Birds of Bombay is that I believe it has been seen about Malabar Point; and indeed, where Banian and Peepul trees are so plentiful, it is not likely to be absent.