100 



GENUS PTILINOPUS, SWAINSON. 



NEARLY allied to the Thick-billed Pigeons or 

 Vinago, in the form of the feet, arboreal habits, and 

 prevailing dispositions of colours, we find another 

 extensive group inhabiting the tropical forests of In- 

 dia and Australia, and the islands of the Pacific, but 

 differing from that genus in the weakness and slender 

 structure of their bill, which member approaches 

 nearer in form to that of the typical pigeons. To 

 this group, taken collectively, Mr Swainson, in the 

 first volume of the Zoological Journal, in an inte- 

 resting paper containing observations on the Colum- 

 bidse, has given the title of Ptilinopus ; but as he there 

 points out the different structure of the wing, in re- 

 gard to the form of the first quill-feather, as it exists 

 in the Columba purpurata, Lath., and Col. mag- 

 nifica, Temm., he proceeds to observe, that it may 

 be necessary still further to subdivide it. This, up- 

 on an investigation and analysis of a variety of spe- 

 cies, we feel inclined to do, restricting the generic 

 title of Ptilinopus to that group of smaller pigeons 

 in which the first quill-feather becomes suddenly nar- 

 rowed or attenuated towards the tip, and the tarsi 

 are feathered almost to the division of the toes. 

 This group is typically represented by the Col. pur- 

 purata of Lath., and also contains two beautiful spe- 



