THE TRUE PIGEONS. 



123 



In the Samoan Islands, far from the Mascarene group which contained the flightless pigeons, whose 

 ill-developed wings afforded them no protection against the cats and pigs of the colonists, there exists 

 at the present day a bird which is nearly related to the extinct Dodo. This is the Tooth-billed 

 Pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris), a species which seemed a few years ago to be decreasing in numbers, 

 owing to its living upon the ground, when the bird became liable to the fatal onslaughts of cats during 



SOLITAIRE. 



the night, while its eggs ran the risk of destrtiction by rats. Within the last ten years, however, 

 this pigeon has entirely changed its habits, roosting and breeding on high trees. The Rev. S. J. 

 Whitmee, to whom we are indebted for our knowledge of the habits of this species, attributes to it 

 considerable intelligence. " This intelligence," he writes, " seems to have enabled the bird to change 

 its habits for self-preservation. It has probably been frightened when roosting, or during incubation, 

 by the attacks of cats, and has sought safety in the trees. Learning, from frequent repetition of th( 

 fright, that the ground is a dangerous place, it has acquired the habit of building, roosting, and feeding 

 upon the high trees ; and this change of habit is now operating for the preservation of this interesting 

 bird, which was a few years ago almost extinct." 



