240 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



they are young. The female has a sort of peak, like a widow's, upon the breast 

 (lego beaks), which is of a dun color. No one feather is straggling from the other all 

 over their bodies, they being very careful to adjust themselves and make them all even 

 with their beaks. The feathers on their thighs are round like shells at the end, and 

 being there very thick have an agreeable effect." Another writer. states that there is 

 also a frontal band resembling black velvet. It laid one egg once a year, and lived on 

 seeds and leaves of trees. Its flesh was good. In 1865 Mr. George Jenner procured 

 a large number of bones of this species, eighty-one in all, in the caves on the island of 

 Mauritius. They were apparently the remains of no less than sixteen or seventeen 



FIG. 114. Didunculus; strigirostris, tooth-billed pigeon. 



individuals and, from the disparity in size, were supposed to represent opposite sexes. 

 They all appeared to belong to birds that had been eaten by men or quadrupeds. 



The family DIDUNCULIDJE possesses but one species, the curious bird known as 

 Didunculus strigirostris, or tooth-billed pigeon. It is a native of the Samoan or Nav- 

 igator's Islands, where alone it is found, and is known to the inhabitants as manu-mea, 

 or red-bird, from the chief color of its plumage, which is chocolate-red. It feeds on 

 plantains and the fruit of a species of Dioscorea or yam, and is very shy and timid. 

 It is a ground-dweller, roosting on stumps and bushes, and building its nests in such 

 situations. Both sexes assist in the duty of incubation, and are so intent in this 

 occupation that they suffer themselves at times to be captured by hand from the nest. 

 The Didunculus is possessed of considerable power of wing, and flies through the air 

 with a loud noise, which, as stated by one observer, is so great, when the bird rises, 



