FRUIT-PIGEONS. 367 



the feathers on the breast are forked at the extremity, and there is a well-marked 

 cap on the top of the head. Among these the Eastern Australian painted pigeon 

 (P. swainsoni) has the crown rose-lilac, surrounded by a narrow ring of yellow ; 

 the upper-parts are mostly greenish yellow, the inner quills being tipped with deep 

 blue ; the breast is dull green, each of the forked feathers shading into silvery grey 

 at the tip ; and there is a lilac band between the breast and the orange abdomen. 

 The third group (Lamprotreron) is distinguished by a broad blue -black band 

 separating the breast from the abdomen. Only two species belong to this group, 

 viz. P. superbus and P. temmincki, the former being very common in New Guinea 

 and Australia. The other groups of this section of the genus, in which the first 

 primary is attenuated at the extremity, include eleven species, which, unliko 

 those previously mentioned, have the tail rather short, and are all inhabitants of 

 New Guinea or the islands immediately to the east and west. The remaining sub- 

 genera differ from those already mentioned in not having the first flight-feathers 

 narrowed, while none have the head, neck, and breast uniform rose-carmine. They 

 include twenty-nine species, many of which are exceedingly beautiful, but none 

 more so than P. eugenics from the Solomon Islands. In both sexes of the latter 

 the head is pure white, and the rest of the upper-parts bronze-green, with a small 

 grey patch on the shoulder and spots on the wing-coverts of the same colour ; the 

 throat and chest are dark purple-red, surrounded by a dull purple band ; and the 

 breast is greyish green, shading into whitish on the abdomen. 



wart-Pigeons, Of the f our other genera of the subfamily we may mention Chrys- 



etc - cenas, which is distinguished by having the inner webs of the quills 

 yellow or orange-yellow, and contains three species from the Fiji Islands, one 

 being the splendid C. victor, the male of which has the general plumage bright 

 orange, with the head and throat olive-yellow, and the bill and feet green. The 

 female has the entire plumage rich green, the head and throat being yellowish 

 green, and the bill and feet black. 



Another genus includes the wart-pigeons (Alectrcenas) of Madagascar, in which 

 the plumage is mostly deep blue, and the feathers of the neck are deeply forked 

 at the extremity. Two of the species have the tail blue ; in one of these the crown 

 of the head is red, while in the other it is grey ; in the third and fourth species the 

 tail is red, the former having the head of a light grey colour, while in the latter it 

 is deep slate-blue. Finally, the one species of Drepanoptila, from New Caledonia 

 and the Isle of Pines, is peculiar in having the outer flight-feathers divided at the 

 tip and the legs entirely feathered. 



Fruit Pi eons ^ Q ^ird subfamily includes the true fruit - pigeons (Car- 



pophagince), the giants of the family, none of them being smaller 

 than a rock-dove, and many larger. They have the bill rather long and distensible 

 at the base, thus enabling them to swallow large fruits whole. Their plumage is 

 not much variegated, and in six out of the seven genera there are fourteen tail- 

 feathers, the seventh (Hemiphaga) having only twelve. The genus Globicera 

 contains seven species, differing from the rest by the swollen fleshy knob at the 

 base of the upper mandible. Passing over a peculiar form (Serresius) from the 

 Marquesas, in which the basal half of the bill is covered with a saddle-shaped 

 production of the skin of the forehead, we come to the typical genus Carpophaga, 



