1 68 



cassell's book of birds. 



tail, which is composed of twelve broad feathers. The plumage is richly coloured, and so prolonged 

 around the throat as to form a complete mane or collar. The head, throat, entire under side, and 

 wings are blackish green ; the feathers on the lower part of the body edged with blue ; the longest of 

 the collar-feathers, back, rump, and feathers of wing-covers are grass-green, witli a metallic lustre, the 

 shorter collar-feathers being of a glossy golden hue, and those of the tail pure white. The eye is light 

 reddish brown, the beak blackish and the foot reddish purple. The length is fourteen inches the 

 breadth across the wings twenty-nine inches ; the wing measures nine inches and a half, and the tail 

 two inches and two-thirds. 



This beautiful bird, according to Jerdon, is met with on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the 



THE HACKLED GROUND PIGEON (Callceiios Nicobarica). 



Merqui Archipelago, the Philippines, and Malaya generally, usually preferring to settle upon the small, 

 unoccupied islands. Though, like its congeners, it possesses considerable powers of flight, it seeks 

 the grain and insects that afford it the means of subsistence almost exclusively on the ground, upon 

 which it passes the entire day, only leaving its surface to seek a perch whereon to sleep. We are 

 without particulars respecting the incubation of this Pigeon, except that, like the Partridge, it builds 

 its nest upon the ground. 



The CROAVNED PIGEONS {Gourd), as the largest members of the family of Pigeons are 

 called, inhabit New Guinea and the neighbouring islands. These birds exceed the Domestic Fowl in 

 size, and are remarkable for a fan-like crest with which the head is adorned. Their body is stout ; 

 their wings, in which the secondary quills exceed the primaries in length, are long and much rounded 

 at the tip ; the beak is about half as long as the head, the foot furnished with long tarsi and short 

 toes, and the slaty-blue plumage very soft in texture. 



