NUTMEG PIGEON. 269 



which is the longest, the remainder gradually decreasing ; the secondaries very short. 

 The tail is ermaginate, the feathers fourteen in number, truncate at tip, and is only 

 about half the length of the wing ; upper tail-coverts short, under a little longer, 

 a little more than half the length of the tail. The legs are very stout, the tarsus 

 about as long as culmen, only feathered on upper half of the front, the lower half 

 showing a few large scutes, the hind portion being covered with minute reticulation. 

 The toes are long and stout, formed as in Globicera, but much longer. 



Coloration pure white, primaries, secondaries and apical portion of tail slaty- 

 black, sometimes a few blackish spots on under tail-coverts, flanks, etc. 



185. Myristicivora bicolor. NUTMEG PIGEON. 



[Columba bicolor Scopoli, Del. Flor. et Faun. Insub., Vol. II., p. 94, 1786 : New Guinea. 

 Extra-limital.] 



Gould, Vol. V., pi. 60 (pt. xii.), Sept. 1st, 1843. Mathews, Vol. I., pt. 2, pi. 27, Jan. 31st. 

 1911. 



Carpophaga spilorrhoa Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.), 1858, p. 186, July 13th : Aru Islands. 

 Myristicivora bicolor melvillensis Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. I., pt. 2, p. 27, April 2nd, 

 1912 : Melville Island, Northern Territory. 



DISTRIBUTION. Northern New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, North-west 

 Australia. 



Adult male. General colour white ; bastard-wing and primary -coverts black ; 

 primary- and secondary-quills black, everywhere dusted with grey ; tail white, 

 broadly tipped with black, more narrowly on the outer feathers, the outermost 

 margined with black down to the base ; the feathers of the lower -abdomen, flanks 

 and under tail-coverts with submarginal black spots ; quills below lead-grey ; 

 bill yellow, black at the base ; iris brown, feet slate colour. Total length 345 mm. ; 

 culmen 26, wing 225, tail 120, tarsus 27. 



Adult female. Similar to the male. 



Nest. Flat, straight, being merely a few sticks or twigs placed crosswise 

 some are more substantial, being built of green branchlets ; usually situated on a 

 horizontal branch of any tree, not unfrequently in mangroves overhanging water, 

 and occasionally near the ground or on rocks. Sometimes three or four nests are 

 situated in one tree. 



Eggs. Clutch, one ; smooth and glossy ; pure white. Measurements of two 

 eggs, axis 44-46 mm., diameter 30 mm. 



Breeding -season. November to January. 



Distribution and forms. Throughout the Moluccas, New Guinea and outlying 

 islands, migrating into tropical northern Australia and on the east coast reaching 

 into New South Wales. Subspecies are not easily differentiated on account of almost 

 pure white coloration, the Australian form M . b. spilorrhoa (Gray) being recognised 

 by means of the black spotting on the under tail-coverts, this feature being more 

 or less absent in the typical race. 



Genus GLOBICERA. 



Globicera Bonaparte, Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, Vol. XXXIX., p. 1072, (about Dec. 

 llth) 1854. Type (by tautonymy) : Columba globicera Wagl. = Columba pacifica Gmelin. 



Large Fruit Pigeons with stout bills bearing a basal globular excrescence, long 

 pointed wings, long tails, small stout legs and feet. The bill is rather long for this 

 group, the dertrum stout, about half the length of the bill, the culmen basally bearing 

 a large excrescence (said to be globular in the living bird) truncate by the frontal 

 feathers and showing the nasal apertures as somewhat rounded holes in the anterior 

 portion ; the lower mandible rather strong, the rami a little curved, the interramal 



