DOVES. 381 



by the metatarsus being very little longer than the middle toe, This clove, remark- 

 able for its size, inhabits the brush-country of Eastern Australia, where it spends the 

 greater part of its time on the ground, feeding on seeds and fallen fruits. The noise 

 made by its wings when rising is said to resemble that of a pheasant, and its flight 

 is never long sustained. In the two species of Entry gon from New Guinea, the 

 metatarsus is twice as long as the third toe ; while the genus Otidiphaps, including 



BLOOD-BKEASTED DOVES ( nat. size). 



three large black species, with chestnut back and wings, from New Guinea and 



Fergusson Island, is peculiar in having twenty feathers in the tail. 



Blue-Bearded The last genus, characterised by having the front of the legs 



Cuban Dove. COV ered by six-sided scales, contains only the blue-bearded Cuban dove 



(Starncenas cyanocephala}, figured on p 382. The general colour of this bird is 



olive-brown above, and dull rusty beneath ; the top of the head being blue margined 



with black, and a broad white stripe running below the eye, while the feathers of 



the throat and breast are black, tipped with blue and narrowly margined with white, 



