115 



MAGNIFICENT FRUIT-PIGEON, 



Carpophaga magnified. 

 PLATE VI. 



Columba magnifica, Temm. in Trans. Linn Soc. vol. xiii. 

 p. 124. Id, PL Col. pi. 163. 



THE rich assemblage of colours exhibited in this 

 bird induced M. Temminck, its first describer, to 

 give it the appropriate name of Magnificent. It is 

 a native of the eastern parts of Australia, a coun- 

 try whose productions present so much of what is 

 new and interesting in every department of zoology. 

 It is said to feed chiefly upon the fruit of one of the 

 Palms, in that country called the Cabbage Tree, from 

 the culinary use made of the top or embryo leaves. 

 In form and character it agrees with the Carpophaga 

 cenea, or Nutmeg Pigeon, and also with the Carpo- 

 phaga oceanica, the subject of our next plate. In 

 size it equals, or rather surpasses, the Common Ring 

 Pigeon, the tail being longer in proportion. The 

 bill, which is rather slender, has the soft or mem- 

 branous part of a brownish-orange ; the horny tip, 

 which is yellowish-white, is slightly arched, but hard 

 and compressed ; the nostrils are open, and their co- 

 vering but little swollen, and not projecting to the 

 same extent as in the Common Pigeon ; the fore- 



