TOOTH-BILLED PIGEONS 



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feeds almost invariably on the ground, its diet consisting chiefly of leguminous 

 seeds. Its nest is a frail structure built of twigs, and placed on the low forked 

 branch of a gum tree {eucalypius), near water. 



Fig. 162.— The Crowned Pigeon {Goura coromxta). 



Sub-Family IV. 

 TOOTH-BILLED PIGEONS. DIDUNCULIN^. 



General Characteristics.— Bill nearly as long as the head, with the culmen de- 

 pressed close to the forehead and then suddenly arched to the tip, which is hooked 

 and acute, the sides slightly compressed, the lower mandible armed with three 

 distinct angular teeth near the tip, which is truncated ; the nostrils pierced in the 

 middle of the basal membranous space, with the opening oblique and linear; the 

 wings moderate and concave ; the tail rather short ; the tarsi moderate and rather 

 strong ; the toes rather long, and the lateral ones equal ; the claws long and cuned. 



This sub-family includes only a single species — 



The Didunculus {Didunculus stngirosiris), which, moreover, presents a 

 most extraordinary combination of characters. The didunculus is rather larger 



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