DOVES. 381 
by the 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 
greater 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 Hutrygon from New Guinea, the 
metatarsus is twice as long as the third toe; while the genus Otidiphaps, including 


























BLOOD-BKEASTED DOVES (3 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 
(Starnenas 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. 
