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jr. Le Pigeon blanc Mangeur de Mufcade de la Nouvelle Guinee, Son. Voy, 



■WHITE NUT- l6 t . , 



MEG P. V V ■■ i 



Description. r p H I S is of a middling ftze. The bill light grey : irides yel- 

 lowifh : the plumage wholly white, except the quills, and 

 one- third of the tail next the end, which are black : the legs are 

 light grey. 

 Place. This inhabits New Guinea? and, with the laft, feeds on Nut- 



megs ; and ferves to propagate this ufeful fpice in the fame man- 

 ner as that bird. 



This fpecies, we are informed by the author, lives on Nut- 

 megs ; and it is moft likely the outer fkiri alone ferves them 

 for nourifhment : as to the nut itfelf, it is voided whole, and fo 

 little altered, that after having paiTed the organs of digeftion, it 

 is not rendered the lefs fit for vegetation : from hence it comes 

 that thefe birds, flying from one ifland to another, fow and fpread 

 the Nutmeg in all of them which they frequent *. 



* A Pigeon was found with two Nutmegs in its mouth and craw, ftill furrounded 

 with their fcarlet coveringor Mace, at the IJIe of Rotterdam. Forft. Voy. ii. p. 332. 

 Ditto Reply, p. 35. 



By this means likewife is the Cinnamon-tree propagated at Ceylon, by certain 

 wild Doves, called from thence Cinnamon-eaters ; and occafion the rife of fo 

 many young trees along the road that they look like a foreft. Forr. Voy. p. 

 345. (no defcription of the bird). Pigeons faid alfo to be the propagators at 

 the Loranthus Stelis, Lin. — " feeding on the berries, and voiding the Hones on 

 ** the trunks of trees, where it grows." See Parkin/. Voy. p. 38. 



Columba 



