COLUMBA ARQUATRIX. 



OLIVE-PIGEON. 



(Plate 44.) 



Columba arquatrix, Temminck & Knip, Pig. et Gal. i, p. ii, PI. v. 

 (1808-13) ; Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus, xxi, p. 276 (1893) ; 

 Woodward, Natal Birds, p. 130 (1899); Reichenow, Vogel 

 Afrikasi, i, p. 403 (1900-01); Sclater, Ann. S. Afr. Mus., iii, 

 p. 353 (1905); Sclater & Stark, Birds of S. Afr., iv, p. 163 

 (1906). 



Palumbus arquatrix, Sharpe's ed. Layard Birds of S. Afr., p. 561 

 (1875-84). 



Local Names. " Rameron Pigeon " or " Black Pigeon " of the Natal 

 Colonists ; " Oliven Duif " or " Bosch Duif " of the Dutch ; 

 " Izuba " of the Amaxosa (Stanford). 



Description. Length about 15| in. The sexes are alike except that 

 the female is slightly smaller and duller. The bird figured is a 

 male. 



Distribution. The Olive-Pigeon is found along the southern coast 

 of Cape Colony from Knysna to Natal and Zululand. Beyond 

 South African limits it extends through Nyassaland and East 

 Africa to Shoa and Abyssinia. 



It is not uncommon in the Magaliesberg Mountains near 

 Rustenburg. 



In British East Africa it is verj' plentiful on the wooded slopes 

 of the Guasin Gishu Plateau, and in the heavy forests of the 

 Nandi country and the Mau Escarpment, and gives excellent 

 shooting. , 



It is found all over Pondoland in wooded country, but is very 

 irregular in its appearance, being common one year and rare 

 another. 



This is the largest of the South African Pigeons, and has habits 

 very much resembling those of the European Wood-Pigeon 



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