44 The Plover-like Birds 



scarlet, the bill bright orange-red shading off near the tip with very bright yel- 

 and the naked space about the eyes is also bright orange-red. 



Entirely confined to the Samoan Islands, the Tooth-billed Pigeon (Didun- 

 culus strigirostris], was apparently first brought to scientific attention by the 

 naturalists of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, who obtained it about 1839, 

 although the full results of this expedition were not published until some years 

 later. They found it at that time a very rare bird and were able to procure 

 only three specimens, although they learned from the natives, who called it the 

 manu-mea, or Red Bird, that it had formerly been very abundant. The islanders, 

 it appears, are very fond of pets, and some years previously had secured numbers 

 of domestic cats from the whaling ships that habitually stopped there. These 

 cats, not taking kindly to the native diet, had begun foraging for themselves, 

 and soon became entirely wild, subsisting largely on the manu-mea, with the 

 result that it was soon practically exterminated; it was also esteemed for food 

 by the natives, who killed it whenever possible. Before the advent of the cats it 

 was largely a ground-haunting bird, spending most of its time, and even build- 

 ing its nest, on the ground, and thus fell an easy prey. But after nearing the verge 

 of extinction the few survivors appear to have adopted or returned to arboreal 

 habits, feeding, roosting, and building their nests well up in the trees, and it is 

 now said to be rapidly increasing in numbers, and apparently no longer threat- 

 ened with extermination. The food of the Tooth-billed Pigeon consists largely 

 of the fruits of a fig, a kind of banyan which frequently spreads itself over an area 

 of one or two hundred feet. When flushed it rises with a tremendous rushing 

 noise that has been likened to the sound of distant thunder, and there is a tradi- 

 tion among the natives that a war party w r as once turned back in dismay by a 

 flight of these birds. It is a shy bird under all circumstances and has never been 

 kept as a pet by the islanders, as are many of the other Pigeons, for it never 

 becomes reconciled to captivity. A number of specimens have been taken alive 

 to Australia, the first about 1861, and at least three have been seen alive ih Europe, 

 but it is never an attractive cage bird. Of its appearance in captivity Dr. Ben- 

 nett says: "It kept steadily looking at me during the time I was examining it, 

 uttering occasionally a plaintive goo, goo, goo. When any one approaches the 

 cage it will sometimes retire to an obscure corner, but at other times will remain 

 quiet on the perch, watching every movement of the spectator. It invariably 

 feeds in the light, but will not do so if any one is present. It usually kept on a 

 low perch, but when disturbed would jump on the ground and run rapidly about, 

 and then take refuge in the darkest corner of the cage. During the whole time 

 the bird was in my possession it never became domesticated, nor evinced the 

 slightest attachment to the lady who daily fed it ; it was the same to her as to a 

 stranger." 



