328 CHARADRIIFORMES CHAP. 
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, palm-nuts, grapes, and so forth, plucked from the tree, and 
in the case of Myristicivora bicolor. and Globicera 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. Zurturoena 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-Dove and Columba phaeconota of South Africa breed in caves 
or holes in rocks; the Stock-Dove prefers hollow trees, rabbit- 
burrows, and the lke; Geophaps the bare soil; and so forth. 
Phaps, Peristera, and Zenaida nest either on the ground or in 
bushes, but the latter appear to be almost invariably chosen by 
Ground-Doves lke Columbigallina and Geopelia. The white eggs 
are two, or exceptionally three, in number ; the Dodo, however, laid 
only one, and so do Caloenas, Ectopistes, Didunculus, and some 
species of Carpophaga and Columba, as well as Goura, where it is 
larger than that of a tame Duck. Societies, such as those of 
Ketopistes 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, Lewcosarcia, Geophaps, Goura, and the 
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 
tlocks 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 ineptus, the Dodo of Mauritius, D. borbonicus of Réunion 
(Bourbon), and Pezophaps solitarius, the Solitaire of Rodriguez. 
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. 
