DOVES. 



381 



by tho metatarsus being very little longer than the middle toe. This dove, remark- 

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

 oreater 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 Eidrygon from New Guinea, the 

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



BLOOD-BHEASTED 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, covered by six-sided scales, contains only the blue-bearded Cuban dove 

 (Stamcenas 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. 



