Vv COLUMBIDAE 
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The Tooth-billed Pigeon was usually found in pairs or small 
parties, and was in great request for food among the natives, 
who, moreover, kept individuals tethered to sticks as pets, while 
the chiefs erected small huts in which to feed the flocks. They 
were often attracted by decoys, and caught with bird-lme. The 
habits are diurnal, or somewhat crepuscular ; the note apparently 
varies from deep and guttural to low and plaintive; and breeding 
takes place from May to September, the single egg being white. 
The birds are decidedly pugnacious in captivity, and occasionally 
nibble their food in Parrot fashion. 
Fam. XII. Columbidae.—If we omit the Arctic and Antarctic 
Fra. 68.—Crowned Pigeon. Goura coronatu. «x i. 
countries, this group forms a remarkably cosmopolitan Family, 
though with an irregular distribution. Roughly speaking, there 
are recognised some dozen Palaearctic, and still fewer Nearctic 
species, with about seventy Neotropical and forty Ethiopian ; India 
possesses about thirty, the Malay Archipelago perhaps a hundred 
and twenty, New Guinea and the Moluccas a hundred. Many island 
forms occur in Polynesia, but Australia can barely claim twenty, the 
New Zealand seas only furnish two, and the Sandwich Islands none. 
