368 . Mr. Alfred R. Wallace on the 



the Fruit-Pigeons ; their ground-colour is generally of a rich 

 grass-greeDj diversified with bands and spots^ caps, and shoulder- 

 patches of the most vivid colours — crimson, pink, purple, white, 

 or yellow in endless diversity. The genus Carpophaga, on the 

 other hand, comprises the giants of the family. They also have 

 their metropolis in New Guinea, but they extend further west- 

 ward, two species occurring in India. Some of these birds 

 have a deep booming note, which might almost be taken for the 

 roar of a wild beast. Their gape and throat are so extensile 

 that they can swallow very large fruits. In the Moluccas they 

 devour the nutmegs, as soon as the fruits open, for the sake of 

 the mace, which is digested off in the bird's stomach, and the 

 seed disgorged entire. 



Looking at the whole family of Fruit-Pigeons, we find that 

 fifty-four species are confined to the Austro-Malayan subregion, 

 while twenty-eight inhabit the Indo-Malayan district, only three 

 species (one of each genus) being common to the two. Beyond 

 the Archipelago, fourteen species (all of the genus Trerun) are 

 found in India, and six of the same genus in Africa ; thirty (of 

 the genera Carpophaga and Ptilonopus) inhabit the various 

 islands of the Pacific, and eight have been found in Australia 

 and New Zealand. Even with our present imperfect knowledge 

 of New Guinea we have fourteen species from that island, a 

 larger number than are known to inhabit any other single tract 

 of land, and plainly marking it out as the focus of the group. 

 Of all the other islands Celebes is by far the richest in Fruit- 

 Pigeons, containing ten species, seven of which are peculiar to it. 



The family Columhida is chiefly represented in the Archipelago 

 by the genus Macropygia, which extends from the Himalayan 

 Mountains to Australia and the Pacific Islands. Rarely is more 

 than a single species found in any island, except in Java, which 

 has three if not four species, and may therefore be considered 

 the headquarters of the genus. These birds feed on the ground 

 or on \o\\ bushes ; and all are more or less of a chestnut- 

 brown colour, and have long and gi'aduated tails. They are of 

 a weak structure and seldom take long flights. Turacceria and 

 ReinwarcUcena are two genera so closely allied to Macropygia 

 that they have been often combined with it. The former, how- 



