452 



THE TOOTH-BILLED PIGEON. 



spreading the other over their bodies so as to form a very shallow tent, each quill-feather being 

 separated from its neighbor, and radiating around the body. Sometimes the bird varies this 

 attitude by stretching the otlier wing to its fidl length, and holding it from the ground, at an 

 angle of twenty degrees or so, as if to take advantage of every sunbeam and every waft of air. 



While lying in this unique attitude, it might easily pass at a little distance for a moss- 

 covered stone, a heap of withered leaves, or a rugged tree-stump, with one broken branch pro- 

 jecting to the side. No one would think of taking it for a Ijird. Unfortunately, it is a diffi- 

 cult matter to take a sketch of the bird while thus reposing, for there are so few salient points 

 that a very careful outline is needed, and its companions are sure to come and peck it up 

 before the sketch can be concluded. 



The cry of this bird is loud and sonorous, and not very easy of description. Some authors 

 compare it to the gobbling of a turkey-cock, but I car. ^lerceive no resemblance to that sound. 

 It is more of a loiid, hollow boom, than anything else, a kind of mixture between a trombone 

 and a drum, and every time that the bird utters this note, it bows its head so low that the 

 crest sweeps the ground. 



The nest of the Crowned Pigeon is said to be made in trees, the eggs being two in number, 

 as is generally the case with this group of birds. Its flesh is spoken highly of by those who 

 have eaten it. The general color of this bird is a dee]i and nearly uniform slate-blue ; the 

 quill-feathers of the wing and tail being very blackish ash, and a patch of pure wliite and 

 warm maroon being found on the wing. 



TOOTH-BILLED PIGBON.— 2>j(/«ft<;«iKS etHgiivslris. 



Ik the Samonn ishinds of the Pacific^ is found a bird of extreme rarity of form, which is, 

 as far as is known, uuique among the feathered tribes that now inhabit the earth. I say now 

 inhabit, because in former days, wlien the Dodo Avas still in existence, that remarkable and 

 ungainly bird presented a foi-m and structure greatly similar to those of the 'Tootii-billed 

 Pigeon. 



On account of its close rehitiojiship with the Dodo, it lias received from some systematic 

 zoologists the generic name of Diduuculus, or Little Dodo, while otliets have given it the title 

 of Gnathodon, or Tooth-jaw, in allusion (o the sfruclure of its beak. The food of this bird 



