242 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
throughout Africa both are present as also in the Palearctic Region. Fruit Pigeons 
range from India to Australia and the Pacific Islands, where they are generally 
associated with a series of Ground Pigeons which are here included in the Turturidz, 
probably incorrectly. 
Famity COLUMBID. 
We have allowed in this family two genera, Lewcomelena and Macropygia, 
owing to the prejudice of Garrod’s observations on the internal features, but the 
former may be an aberrant Fruit Pigeon and the latter an aberrant Turtle-Dove. 
As these groups need careful investigation in a scientific manner we have preferred 
to leave this matter as it stands without prejudice for the present. 
Genus LEUCOMELGNA. 
Leucomelena Bonaparte, Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, Vol. XXXIX., p. 1104, Dec. 
1854. Type (by monotypy): Colwnba norfolciensis Latham. 
Large Pigeons with short bills, long wings, long square tail, short legs half- 
feathered in front and strong feet. The bill is less than the length of the head, a 
swollen dertrum with tip slightly decurved about half the length; the culmen 
ridge being flat behind, nostrils linear slits practically hidden by a swollen mem- 
branous operculum, more than half the length of the nasal groove ; the nostrils are 
parallel to the edge of the upper mandible which is parallel to the culmen as far as 
the nasal groove extends, from which point it descends to the tip, which is narrowed 
but not greatly from the base. The under mandible has a short gonys, the mandibular 
rami pronounced and grooved, the interramal space notable and completely 
feathered. The culmen is less than the tarsus and less than one-tenth of the wing. 
There is no bare space round the eye. The wing is long, composed of strong 
broad feathers, the second and third only slightly scalloped on the outer webs and 
not at all on the inner webs; the first primary is long, equal to the fourth, the 
second and third subequal and longest. The tail is long and square, more than 
half the length of the wing, the feathers very broad, the tips truncate, the upper 
and under tail-coverts short but composed of strong feathers. The legs are short, 
the tarsus being half-feathered in front but not behind where the scaling consists of 
small hexagonal scales, the front having a single row of strong horizontal scutes ; 
the tarsus is longer than the culmen but shorter than the middle toe; all the 
toes are covered with strong scutes and the middle toe is very long with a very long 
claw, the outer and inner subequal; the hind-toe long with a strong membranous 
edge on each side, on the inside attached to similar membrane developed at the 
base of the inner toe. 
Coloration greenish back above with head white as under-surface to abdomen 
which is slate. 
164. Leucomelcena norfolciensis.—WHITE-HEADED FRUIT PIGEON. 
Gould, Vol. V., pl. 59 (pt. x.), Sept. Ist, 1843. Mathews, Vol. I., pt. 2, pl. 29, Jan. 31st, 
1911. 
Columba norfolciensis Latham, Index Ornith., Suppl., p. Lx., after May 30th, 1801: Norfolk 
Island (errore) = New South Wales. 
Columba leucomela Temminck, Trans. Linn. Soc. (Lond.), Vol. XIII., pt. 1, p. 126, 1821: 
Queensland. 
Leucomelena norfolciensis queenslandica Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. III., pt. 3, p. 54, 
April 7th, 1916: Queensland. 
DisTRIBUTION.—Queensland, New South Wales. 
