328 CHARADRIIFORMES 



triloquism. The food of the Wood-Pigeon is grain, beech-mast, acorns, 

 turnips, and tender shoots of plants ; that of Fruit-Pigeons consists 

 of figs, pahn-nuts, grapes, and so forth, phicked from the tree, and 

 in the case of Myristicivora bicolor and Glohicera myristicivora, 

 largely of the mace which encases the nutmeg ; Ground-Doves 

 and other small forms subsist mainly on seeds of grasses ; and it 

 may be safely inferred that in most cases the diet varies consider- 

 ably. T'urturoena is stated to eat Cicada larvae; Leucosarcia. those 

 of Diptera ; Goura and Otidiphaps worms, snails, and insects. 

 Pigeons, unlike birds generally, take continuous draughts of water, 

 immersing the bill to the base. The nest is usually a slight 

 platform of sticks, placed aloft on a branch or in a bush ; but our 

 Rock-Dov.e and Coluviba fliaeonota of South Africa breed in caves 

 or holes in rocks ; the Stock-Dove prefers hollow trees, rabbit- 

 burrows, and the like ; Geo'plia'ps the bare soil ; and so forth. 

 Phctps, Peristera, and Zenaida nest either on the ground or in 

 bushes, but the latter appear to be almost invariably chosen by 

 Ground-Doves like Columhigallina and Geopelia. The white eggs 

 are two, or exceptionally three, in number ; the Dodo, however, laid 

 only one, and so do Caloenas, Uctojnstes, Didunculiis, and some 

 species of Caiyophaga and Colmnba, as well as Goura, where it is 

 larger than that of a tame Duck. Societies, such as those of 

 Ectopistes and Caloenas, are most unusual. Some Pigeons breed 

 three times a year, the male commonly assisting in incubation, 

 which lasts from fourteen to twenty-eight days. The members 

 of this Family are shy, but readily tamed ; yet the Collared Turtle- 

 Dove is perhaps the only really good cage-bird. Most of them 

 are excellent for the table, Leucosarcia, Geophaps, Gotira, and tlie 

 Treroninae being accounted particularly delicate, while the Wood- 

 Pigeon and the domestic breeds speak for themselves. The great 

 damage, however, done to crops, such as turnips, peas, or barley, by the 

 flocks counterbalances their economic value to a considerable extent, 

 the most typical forms being undoubtedly the worst offenders. 



Fam. X. Dididae. — -This consists of three extinct species — 

 Didus irieptus, the Dodo of Mauritius, D. horhonicus of Eeunion 

 (Bourbon), and Fezophaps solitarius, the Solitaire of Eodriguez. 



The Dodo, familiar to all by name, if not by pictures, was an 

 immense Pigeon-like bird bigger than a Turkey, with an aborted 

 keel to the sternum and the wings also aborted. The coracoid and 

 scapula met at an obtuse angle, as in many other flightless species. 



