GOURINiE, 487 



The sub-family Gourin.e, in like manner made a distinct family 

 by Bonaparte, is founded on the Crowned-pigeons of New Guinea 

 and adjacent islands, two species being- known, Gonra coronata, 

 and G. Victorice. They are birds of very large size, and of a pale 

 blue colour, with a beautiful Peacock-like crest. They have 

 bred together in the Zoological Gardens in London. 



Blyth's Psammcenas Burnesii, founded on a drawing among 

 Sir A. Burnes' Collections, I consider to be nothing more than a 

 badly-drawn Dove, T. risorius, or allied domesticated race. 



The family Didunculid.e is represented by a single bird, the 

 remarkable and rare Didunculus strigirostris, Jardine, from the 

 Samoens Archipelago, and figured by Gould in his Birds of Aus- 

 tralia. It has short but pointed wings, with the winglet highly 

 developed ; very large feet, and long curved claws. The bill 

 is strong, deep, and toothed ; the lower part of the tibia is 

 naked. Bonaparte, who separates it from the true Pigeons, 

 as the sole member of the tribe Pleiodi, states that it has consider- 

 able affinity with several of the Orti/rjincE, or American Partridges. 

 Its chief interest, however, is in its somewhat distant but intel- 

 ligible approach to the extinct Dodo, from the islands of Mauritius 

 and Rodrigues, forming the family DiDiDiE. 



This remarkable bird, of which fragments exist in some of 

 our Museums, was called Didus inepius by Linnaeus. It was a 

 very large bird, weighing 50 lbs., and of a bulky and heavy form. 

 Its strong, large, and hooked bill caused it to be considered 

 as related to the Vultures by some Naturalists, whilst others, from 

 its short wings, classed it with the Ostrich. Strickland in a 

 learned and able essay, however, pointed out its real affinities to 

 be with the Pigeons ;^ and this has been assented to by all 

 systematists. Several good pictures, evidently from life, are 

 fortunately still extant. The cere was large, the face naked, the 

 general colour blackish gray, the wings and tail lighter. Some other 

 allied forms are indicated by various travellers, one especially 

 called "Ze solitaire" by Leguat, who particularly alluded to the 

 double crop of this bird. Notices of these will be found in 

 Strickland and Melville's Natural History of the Dodo, and Schle- 

 gel's Monograph on the same subject. 



