COLUMBIDAE 335 



Otidiphaps nobilis of "Western Kew Guinea and Batanta, 0. cervi- 

 calis of South-East New Guinea, and 0. insularis of Fergusson 

 Island, are greenish-black, chestnut, and purple, with the bill red, 

 the feet reddish with rough yellow scales, and the nape green, 

 grey, and black respectively. They have no less than twenty 

 rectrices, while the first two have an occipital crest. These 

 Pigeons, said to resemble Megapodes in habits, frequent hills or 

 dense thickets, often near the sea-coast, but are difficult of observa- 

 tion, owing to their shyness ; they run swiftly with erect out- 

 spread tail, perch on low boughs, and have a harsh cry, varied by a 

 plaintive note ; the food consists of fruits, roots, and snails. The 

 nest, containing one egg, is said to be placed at the foot of a tree. 

 Starnoenas cyarwcephala, of Cuba and the Florida Keys, is brown 

 above and purplish-rufous below, with a blue crown surrounded 

 by black, a black throat with a white basal line, a white stripe 

 across each cheek, and red bill and feet varied with bluish. 

 This bird, the " Perdiz " of the Cubans, frequents wooded hills 

 and has somewhat gallinaceous habits ; the food consists of 

 seeds, berries, and snails, the hollow note having the effect of ven- 

 triloquism. Another long-legged, terrestrial genus from New 

 Guinea is Uutrygon ; E. terrestris being olivaceous lead-coloured, 

 with rufous outer margins to the brown remiges, while E. 

 leucopareia has a reddish hue on the wing-coverts. Leiicosarcia 

 picata, the white-fleshed Wonga-wonga of Eastern Australia, is 

 blue-black with white forehead, pectoral band, and central 

 abdomen. It inhabits the brushes, and feeds chiefly upon the 

 ground on seeds, fruits, and insect-larvae; the flight is of short dura- 

 tion and the habits somewhat Pheasant-like ; the nest is in a tree. 

 Phlogoenas contains a score of members ranging from the Philip- 

 pines and Timor to the Society Islands. P. luzonica of Luzon 

 has purplish upper parts, a greyish -blue head, and yellowish- 

 white lower parts, with a patch of stiff red decomposed feathers 

 over the crop ; the inner webs of the remiges are more or less 

 rufous, a characteristic found also in Chalcopelia, Columbigallina, 

 Scardafella, and Leptoptila, from very different parts of the 

 world. P. rufigida, of New Guinea and the islands to the north- 

 west, has the crop-patch yellowish-ochre ; P. tristigma of North 

 Celebes is perhaps most striking of all, with its yellow breast 

 and forehead, green head, purple nape, and green and purple 

 tints on the brown upper back ; P. stairi of the Fiji and Tonga 



