COLUMBIDAE 



333 



The Tooth-billed Pigeon was usually found in pairs or small 

 parties, and was in great request for food among the natives, 

 who, moreover, kept individuals tethered to sticks as pets, while 

 the chiefs erected small huts in which to feed the flocks. They 

 were often attracted by decoys, and caught with bird-lime. The 

 habits are diurnal, or somewhat crepuscular ; the note apparently 

 varies from deep and guttural to low and plaintive ; and breeding 

 takes place from May to September, the single egg being white. 

 The birds are decidedly pugnacious in captivity, and occasionally 

 nibble their food in Parrot fashion! 



Fam. XII. Columbidae. — If we omit the Arctic and Antarctic 



Fig. 68. — Crowned Pigeon. 



countries, this group forms a remarkably cosmopolitan Family, 

 though with an irregular distribution. Eoughly speaking, there 

 are recognised some dozen Palaearctic, and still fewer Nearctic 

 species, with about seventy Neotropical and forty Ethiopian ; India 

 possesses about thirty, the Malay Archipelago perhaps a hundred 

 and twenty, New Guinea and the Moluccas a hundred. Many island 

 forms occur in Polynesia, but Australia can barely claim twenty, the 

 New Zealand seas only furnish two, and the Sandwich Islands none. 



