452 



THE TOOTH-BILLED PIGEON. 



spreading the other over their bodies so as to form a very shallow tent, each quill-feather being 

 separated from its neighbor, and radiating around the body. Sometimes the bird varies this 

 attitude by stretching the other wing to its full length, and holding it from the ground, at an 

 angle of twenty degrees or so, as if to take advantage of every sunbeam and every waft of air. 



While lying in this unique attitude, it might easily pass at a little distance for a moss- 

 covered stone, a heap of withered leaves, or a rugged tree-stump, with one broken branch pro- 

 jecting to the side. No one would think of taking it for a bird. Unfortunately, it is a diffi- 

 cult matter to take a sketch of the bird while thus reposing, for there are so few salient points 

 that a very careful outline is needed, and its companions are sure to come and peck it up 

 before the sketch can be concluded. 



The cry of this bird is loud and sonorous, and not very easy of description. Some authors 

 compare it to the gobbling of a turkey-cock, but I can perceive no resemblance to that sound. 

 It is more of a loud, hollow boom, than anything else, a kind of mixture between a trombone 

 and a drum, and every time that the bird utters this note, it bows its head so low that the 

 crest sweeps the ground. 



The nest of the Crowned Pigeon is said to be made in trees, the eggs being two in number, 

 as is generally the case with this group of birds. Its flesh is spoken highly of by those who 

 have eaten it. The general color of this bird is a deep and nearly uniform slate-blue ; the 

 quill-feathers of the wing and tail being very blackish ash, and a patch of pure white and 

 warm maroon being found on the wing. 



TOOTH-BILLED PIGEON. Didunculut tlrigirostrte. 



IN the Samoan islands of the Pacific, is found a bird of extreme rarity of form, which is, 

 as far as is known, unique among the feathered tribes that now inhabit the earth. I say now 

 inhabit, because in former days, when the Dodo was still in existence, that remarkable and 

 ungainly bird presented a form and structure greatly similar to those of the TOOTH-BILLED 

 PIGEON. 



On account of its close relationship with the Dodo, it has received from some systematic 

 zoologists the generic name of Didunculus, or Little Dodo, while others have given it the title 

 of Grnathodon, or Toothed-jaw, in allusion to the structure of its beak. The food of this bird 



