THE BIRDS OF THE FIJI ISLANDS. 31 



find, is more generally distributed over a certain range of country than I 

 suspected. It certainly is found in Lanthala* and Rambi islands^ and on 

 Vanua Levu, about Bua, Ndreketti, &c. ; and this, coupled with the discovery 

 of the other species of birds already alluded to in this paper as residing there, 

 seems to point to the fact that at no very distant date (geologically speaking) 

 these islands were joined together, and not, as now, separated by the Straits 

 of Somo-Somo. Those of ' The Ibis ' brotherhood who have shot the ' Cock 

 of the Rock ' can readily picture to themselves the ' flame ' of the Orange 

 Dove as he pursues some rival through the green forest — the eye fairly 

 dazzled as the orange ball on golden wings turns and twists in the sunlight. 

 Dull days do not suit him a bit, and he hides away and mopes, never uttering 

 a sound ; but with the bright sun he emerges from his retreat, and ' clucks ' 

 to his green wife from many a ^ cool retreat/ The young males never utter 

 this sound, and would be mistaken for females, but that the vent is more 

 orange. They breed about December or November, making a rude platform 

 of small twigs for a nest, not usually above 8 or 10 feet from the ground, and 

 laying two eggs, pure white, axis V^ A^'\ diam. 1'^ 



'' People have told me they have taken the young birds orange-coloured 

 from the nest, and seen orange females. I regret to say I don't believe them ! 



" C. victor feeds on many sorts of small and large berries and fruits, 

 swallowing them whole.'' 



Dr. Otto Finsch, writing upon a new species of Fruit-Pigeon from the 

 Pacific island of Rapa, ''erroneously called on our maps" Opara (P. Z. S. 

 1874, pp. 92 et seq.}, remarks that 'Hhe geographical distribution of the 

 fruit-eating Pigeons in the numerous islands of the Pacific is very interesting, 

 and confirms the rule that insular regions produce a great quantity of species, 

 pecuhar in many cases to very small islands." He then proceeds to give 



^ [All tliese islands are well seen in Petermann's map (''Die Yiti- oder Fiji-Inseln/ 8vo, 

 Gotlia : Justus Perthes, 1862), to be got at Messrs. V^illiams & Norgate's, 14 Henrietta Street, 

 Covent Garden. — Editor of O.'M.] 



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