PIGEONS. 



than our common partridge; it has the head, neck, and breast of a glossy 

 greenish black, and the remainder of its phimap^e deep chestnut. The bill and 

 the naked skin surrounding the eyes are bright llesh-colour. In this strange 

 bird the bill is large and strong, the upper mandible convex and strongly hooked 

 at the top, whilst the lower mandible is abruptly truncated at its extremity, and 

 armed on each side with the three strong teeth above alluded to. The basal 

 portion of the sides of the upper mandible are covered with a skin, in which 

 the elongated and oblique nostrils are pierced ; the wings are tolerably long, 

 the legs stout, the toes long and furnished with long_ claws. This singular 

 pigeon inhabits the Samoan Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is described as 

 dwelling principally upon the branches of trees, and feeding upon fruits and 

 berries. It flies well, and is said to breed among the rocks in the interior of 



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Fig 103— Ihe OwlblaivLU JJiutiSi-LULb (/,'. 



the islands. The chief interest attaching to the didunculus, however, is its near 

 approach, especially in the form of the bill, to that most remarkalale extinct 

 bird, the Dodo of the Mauritius, described in the next page ; indeed, it is from 

 this resemblance that it appears to have received its name of Didunculus, 

 intended as a diminutive of the name of its gigantic prototype. It has also 

 been called by some authors " Gnathodon," or toothed-bill, in allusion to the 

 three remarkable denticulations in the anterior part of the lower mandible of 

 its curiously-shaped beak. The whole appearance of the didunculus is clumsy, 

 and it presents an air of stupidity only surpassed by the physiognomy of the 

 dodo itself, to which bird, par excellence^ the epithet of incptus (incapable) has 

 been by universal consent applied; indeed, its very looks are sufficient to 

 impress upon the most casual observer the conviction that the species must 

 soon become extinct. 



