AROMATIC VINAGO. 



Vinago aromatica. CUVIER. 

 PLATE I. 



Columba aromatica, Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 599. sp. 23. Co- 

 lombe aromatique, Temminck, Pig. et Gall. 1. p. 51. 



THE Aromatic Vinago is found in all the warmer 

 parts of Continental India, as well as in Java and 

 other adjacent islands, but being strictly an arboreal 

 bird, it is only to be met with in the retirement of 

 the forest, or amid the thick and expansive foliage 

 of the banyan, the sacred tree of the East, and which 

 from its peculiar mode of growth almost constitutes 

 a forest of itself. Ensconced in this leafy covering, 

 in which it is still more effectually concealed by the 

 assimilating colour of its plumage, * it passes the 



* The following note accompanied the skins of V. mili- 

 taris and aromatica sent from India, and as illustrative of 

 their peculiar habits, we make no apology for thus introduc- 

 ing it : " Green Pigeon. This beautiful bird has brilliant 

 red eyes. Its feet are something like the parrot's, and it 

 climbs in the same way as that bird. It is very difficult to 

 find, for although a flock is marked into a tree, yet its co- 

 lour is so similar to the leaf of the banyan (on the small 

 red fig of which it feeds), that if a bird does not move, you 

 may look for many minutes before you can see one, al- 

 though there may be fifty in the tree." 



