103 



PURPLE-CROWNED TURTELINE. 



Ptilinopus purpuratus. SWAINSON. 

 PLATE III. 



Columba purpurata, Lath. Index Or nith. 2, 398, sp. 17. 

 Temm. Pig. et Gall. 8vo, i. p. 180 Wag. Syst. Av. No. 

 30 Purple- crowned Pigeon, Lath. Syn. iv. 626, 15. 



THIS lovely bird, first described by Latham in his 

 General Synopsis, from specimens brought from 

 Tonga- Taboo, in which, as well as Otaheite, and 

 others of the Friendly Islands, it is found numerously 

 disseminated in all their wooded districts, is also met 

 with in the Celebes, the Isle of Timor, and in Aus- 

 tralia. It is not, however, improbable that other nearly 

 allied species have sometimes been mistaken for it, 

 as some supposed varieties have been described, 

 which it is difficult to reconcile with the usual plu- 

 mage of the P. purpuratus. Such, indeed, appears to 

 be the opinion of Wagler, who, detailing the plumage 

 of both sexes as alike, considers the bird figured by 

 M. Temminck, in the " Planches Coloriees," for the 

 female of this species, to be distinct, and has accord- 

 ingly, in his Systema Avium, named it Columba 

 xanthogastra, and such also may be the case with 



