724 



PIGEON 



deserves attention, but the beautiful " Bronze- wings " of Australia, 

 belonging to the genus Phaps, and some others are in their way 

 hardly inferior. Then may be mentioned the strange Nicobar 

 Pigeon, Caloenas, an inhabitant of the Indian archipelago, not less 

 remarkable for the long lustrous hackles that clothe its neck than 

 for the structure of its gizzard, which has been described by Sir 

 W. Flower (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 330), though this peculiarity 

 is matched or even surpassed by that of the same organ in the 

 Phsenorrhina, goliath of New Caledonia (Rev. Zool. 1862, p. 138) and 

 in the CarpopJmga latrans of Fiji, wherein the surface of the epithelial 

 lining is beset by horny conical processes, adapted, it is believed, 

 for crushing the very hard fruits of Onocarpus mtiensis on which the 

 bird feeds (Proc. Zool Soc. 1878, p. 102), The modern giants of 



FOOT OF OJ!NA. 



PIGEONS' 



shewing amount of feathering of th< 

 (After Swainson.) 



'tarsus.' 



HALLUX OF 



ENGYPTILA AND PTILOPUS. 

 (After Swainsou.) 



the group, consisting of about half a dozen species of the genus 

 GOURA and known as Crowned Pigeons have been already noticed, 

 and all that need be added here is to mention the reticulated 

 instead of scutellated covering of their " tarsi." In contrast to 

 them may be mentioned the African (Ena capensis, the " Namaqua 

 Duif " of the Dutch colonists, which if not the smallest is one of the 

 most graceful in form of all the Columbx. 



A very distinct type of Pigeon is that represented by Didunculus 

 strigirostris, the " Manu-mea " of Samoa, absurdly called the DODLET, 

 and still believed by some to be the next of kin to the DODO, though 

 really presenting only a superficial resemblance in the shape of its 

 bill to that effete form, from which it differs osteologically quite as 

 much as do other Pigeons (Phil Trans. 1869, p. 349). It remains 

 to be seen whether the Papuan genus Otidiphaps, of which several 

 species are now known, may not belong rather to the Didunculiddz 

 than to the true Columbidaz. 



