38 Christmas Island. 



No. 61, (J ad. Plying Fish Cove, October 22, 1897. 



a, b, $ juv. Phosphate Hill, October 24, 1897. 



c, d, e, ^ ad. et imm. Plying Pish Cove, November 29, 1897. 



No. 72, (^ imm. Plying Pish Cove, November 21, 1897. 



J ad. Phosphate Hill, November 3, 1897. 



J ad. Plying Pish Cove, November 28, 1897. 



No. 71, $ imm. Plying Pish Cove, November 24, 1897. 



^ imm. Plying Pish Cove, November 16, 1897. 



Of this fine and peculiar Pruit-Pigeon Mr. Andrews procured 

 a good series. There does not seem to be any appreciable 

 difference in the colour of the sexes, but the young birds are more 

 reddish underneath, and the first feathers of the throat and breast 

 are of a dull grey, without any purplish or vinous tint whatever. 



[The large Pruit-Pigeon, called by the Malays ' Pergam, ' is very 

 common over the whole island, but is much more often heard than 

 seen, since it lives among the thick foliage of the tops of the lofty 

 forest trees, whei'e to the unpractised eye it is extremely difficult to 

 discover. In addition to the ordinary cooing note, the male utters 

 a deep booming cry which is the most striking of the forest sounds 

 during the daytime. This note is said to resemble closely the 

 noise made by tigers, and Mr, Hoss told me that an old Bantamese 

 wood- cutter who came to the island was at first afraid to enter 

 the forest, and was with much difficult}' persuaded that a bird 

 was responsible for the sound. These birds are very tame, and 

 when a number were feeding in a tree it was generally possible 

 to shoot several, one after the other, without disturbing the rest. 

 The boys in the island used to catch them with a noose of string at 

 the end of a long stick, and the birds would sit quietly while the 

 instrument of their destruction was prepared, and the boy climbed 

 into a convenient position for using it. On one occasion I caught 

 one with my hands while it was drinking at a puddle on a tree 

 trunk. 



The food is the fruit and leaf -buds of the various forest trees, 

 and the birds gather in great numbers in trees of which the fruit 

 is just ripening. The feet are very powerful, prehensile organs, 

 and, while feeding, this Pigeon clambers about among the branches 

 like a Parrot. The nest is a verj' scanty structure of sticks placed 

 high up in a tree. The eggs are two in number, white, and 

 elongated, with both ends alike. I saw a pair building on 

 December 24th, and obtained an egg on January 6th ; many young 

 birds were shot in April. There seem to be two broods a year, for 

 in the middle of November there were also great numbers of young 

 birds, characterized by their looser, duller plumage and grey legs ; 

 in the adult the legs are a bright red. I have counted between 

 fifty and sixty on the bushes round the small waterfall on the east 

 coast. The year before I visited the island was a very dry one, 

 and Mr. Koss informed me that great numbers of these Pigeons had 

 died of thirst.— C. W. A.] 



