CHAP. XXIX.] FINE PIGEONS. 181 



pots of native pottery, and a few European plates and 

 basins, were the whole furniture, and the interior was 

 throughout dark and smoke-blackened, and dismal in the 

 extreme. 



Accompanied by Ali and Baderoon, I now attempted to 

 make some explorations, and we were followed by a train 

 of boys eager to see what we were going to do. The most 

 trodden path from the beach led us into a shady hollow, 

 where the trees were of immense height and the under- 

 growth scanty. From the summits of these trees came at 

 intervals a deep booming sound, which at first puzzled 

 us, but wliich we soon found to proceed from some large 

 pigeons. My boys shot at them, and after one or two 

 misses, brought one down. It was a magnificent bird 

 twenty inches long, of a bluish white colour, with the 

 back wings and tail intense metallic green, with golden, 

 blue, and violet reflexions, the feet coral red, and the eyes 

 golden yellow. It is a rare species, which I have named 

 Carpophaga conciuna, and is found only in a few small 

 islands, where, however, it abounds. It is the same species 

 which in the island of Banda is called the nutmeg-pigeon, 

 from its habit of devouring the fruits, the seed or nutmeg 

 being thrown up entire and uninjured. Though these 

 pigeons have a narrow beak, yet their jaws and throat are 

 so extensible that they can swallow fruits of very large 

 size. I had before shot a species much smaller tlian this 



