Painted Pigeons 415 



group of these Pigeons (Osmotreron), numbering no less than nineteen species, 

 which are distinguished from the others just mentioned by having the tibial 

 feathers greenish or whitish instead of yellowish. In the three remaining genera 

 of the subfamily the sheath of the upper mandible reaches the feathers of the 

 forehead. Of these Butreron, with a single species (B. capellei), is found in the 

 Mergui Archipelago, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, and Java. Treron 

 with two forms, is widely spread from the southeastern Himalayas to the Philip- 

 pines ; and Phabotreron, with nine species is confined to the Philippine Islands. 

 The latter, marked by possessing a tail of only twelve feathers, are handsome 

 small birds under ten inches in length, with a plumage mainly of chocolate -brown. 

 Painted Pigeons. The two remaining groups of Tree Pigeons are distin- 

 guished from the first by a much thinner bill and by the absence of the conspicu- 

 ous yellow band across the wing at the tips of the greater upper wing-coverts. 

 In the first of these groups the Ptilopodince the birds are of small size, with 

 a rather short bill which is not especially distensible at the base as in the other 

 groups, and the plumage is mostly green, though generally much variegated with 

 patches of different colors, often producing very beautiful and striking contrasts. 

 Of the seventeen genera and one hundred species included in this group, we can 

 mention but few, among them, of course, the beautiful Painted Pigeons, which 

 to the number of seventy-five species were formerly included in the genus Ptilopus, 

 but which are now disposed among a dozen or more genera. As a whole, the 

 Painted Pigeons may be known by having the plumage generally green, or in 

 any case not entirely deep blue, while the primaries are not divided at the tip, 

 nor are their inner webs either yellow or orange-yellow. To convey some idea 

 of their great beauty a few species may be briefly described. Thus the Jamboo 

 Pigeon (Leucotreron jambu) of the Malay Archipelago, a bird about ten inches 

 in length, is shining bronze-green above, with the head deep crimson, this color 

 extending from the front to the middle of the crown, behind the eyes and across 

 the ear-coverts to the throat, while a brownish chestnut stripe runs down the 

 chin and middle of the throat, with a spot behind the ears, the sides and front of 

 the neck pure white, which passes into buffy white along the sides of the breast 

 and the whole of the abdomen, contrasting with the middle of the breast, which 

 is a beautiful pink. To complete the picture it may be added the bill is bright 

 yellow and the feet dark red. The female is similar but smaller, the colors being 

 duller and the breast grayish green. In the genus Ptilopus as at present re- 

 stricted the tail is of moderate length and the wing is rather long, while the 

 head possesses a well-defined cap. In Grey's Painted Pigeon (P. greyi} of 

 New Caledonia and near-by islands, the upper parts are bronze-green, the upper 

 part of the head purple-rose or magenta, margined behind with yellow, while 

 the chin and throat are yellowish, the breast grayish green, the middle of the 

 abdomen dull purple, and the lower abdomen purple tinged with orange. The 

 bill is green with a gray tip and the feet dull crimson. In Lamprotreron, a genus 

 of two species, ranging from Celebes through the Moluccas and the Papuan 

 Islands to Australia, the wing is short and there is a broad band of blue-black 

 separating the breast from the abdomen. In L. superba, the Superb Fruit 



