118 OCEANIC FRUIT-PIGEON. 



the appearance of these two birds, might naturally 

 create a suspicion that they were merely varieties of 

 one species ; but the observations of naturalists, and 

 particularly of M. Lesson, prove that they are quite 

 distinct ; for, in addition to a constant and unvary- 

 ing difference in certain parts of the plumage, and in 

 the form of the frontal knob, they possess a different 

 geographical distribution, the Carpophaga cenea, or 

 Nutmeg Pigeon, being a native of continental India, 

 the Moluccas, and New Guinea, the Carpophaga 

 oceanica an inhabitant of the Caroline and other 

 islands of the Pacific. The oceanica is also inferior 

 in size, being nearly a third less than the cenea, the 

 latter measuring nearly eighteen inches in length, the 

 former not more than fourteen. It belongs to the 

 same group as the subject of the preceding plate, 

 possessing a similar form in the characteristic mem- 

 bers of the bill, wings, and feet. Its food in the Isle 

 of Onalan, where it was met with in great numbers 

 by the Coquille, in her voyage of discovery, consist- 

 ed of a berry, not named, but which abounded in all 

 the wooded districts of that island. 



where, speaking of the pigeons, it says, " Nous citerons des 

 belles colombes Muscadivores,dont plusieurs e'taient privees 

 de la caroncle noire et arrondie que presentaient le plus 

 grand-nombre des especes. Get organe entierement grais- 

 seauz, ne doit-s'elever sur le base de la mandibule superieure 

 qu'a 1'epoque que se distend pour recevoir ce fluide, resultat 

 d'une vie en exces, doit apres la fecondation, sedissiper, se 

 recouvrir, et ne plus paraitre au dessus des narines que 

 comme une legere fron9ure cutanee." 



