26 CROWNED GOURA PIGEON. 



do, the first commencing, the other completing, the 

 circle of the Rasorial Order, such a form as that 

 of the Lophyrus was required to connect the two 

 extremes ; and in this species we have a beautiful il- 

 lustration of the manner in which Nature has con- 

 trived to sustain, in this order of the feathered race, 

 that circular succession of affinities, which appears 

 to prevail throughout the whole of animated matter. 

 In the form of its bill, its voice, and mode of pro- 

 pagation, it shews its near relation to the Typical 

 Pigeons more decidedly than the Ground Pigeons 

 already described ; but its gait, its elevated crest, its 

 short wings, and lengthened tail, are so much in ac- 

 cordance with those of the Cracidce^ that Temminck 

 observes, to make it a Hocco or species of Crax IL 

 exterior, it would only be necessary to substitute the 

 hill of the one bird for the other. The Crowned 

 Goura is a native of many of the islands of the great 

 Indian Archipelago, being by no means rare in Java 

 and Bauda. In New Guinea it is abundant, as well 

 as in most of the Molucca Islands. It inhabits the 

 forests, and feeds upon berries, seeds, grain, &c. Its 

 nest is built upon a tree, and, like the majority of 

 the Columbidse, it lays but two eggs each hatching 

 The voice of the male is a hoarse murmuring or 

 cooing, accompanied by a noise, seemingly produced 

 by the compression or forcible ejection of the air 

 contained within the thorax, something similar to 

 that so frequently heard from the turkey, when, 

 strutting with expanded tail, he pays his court to 



