PHLOGCENAS CRUENTA. 



Red-breasted Pig-eon. 



La Tourterelle grise ensanglantee, Sonn. Voy. a la Nouv. Guin., p. 52, pi. 21 



blanche ensanglantSe, Sonn. Id., p. 51, pi. 20. 



Red-breasted Turtle, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. iv. p. 657. 



Sanguine Turtle, Lath. Id., p. 657, and Gen. Hist., vol. viii. p. 91. 



Columba cruenta, Gmel. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 785.— Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 611. 



sanguinea, Gmel. Id., p. 785.— Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 611. 



Columbi-galline poignardS, Knip et Temm. Les Pig. part ii (Les Colombi-gallines), p. 16, pi. 8 et pi. 9, var. 

 Columba Luzonica, Scop. Del. Flor. et Faun. Insub. 



nivea, Scop., var. 



Red-breasted Pigeon, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. viii. p. 90. 



Caloenas Luzonica, Gray, List of Spec, of Birds in Coll. Brit. Mus., part iii. p. 18. 



Caloenas ? luzonica, Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 478, Caloenas, sp. 3. 



cruenta, Cab. 



Phlegoenas luzonica, Reich. Syst. Av., t. ccxxv. fig. 1265, var., et tab. ccxxvii. f. 2479. 

 Phleganas cruenta, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., torn. ii. p. 88, Phlegoenas, sp. 1. 

 Phlogcenas cruenta, Sclat. in Proc. of Zool. Soc, 1863, p. 377. 

 Phlegoenas luzonica, Wall. Ibis, 1865, p. 392. 



Among the many advantages afforded to the ornithologist by the unrivalled collection of birds contained in 

 the menagerie of the Zoological Society of London, are the opportunities given him from time to time of 

 becoming acquainted with living examples of species of which probably he had before only seen but 

 indifferent skins ; he is thereby enabled not only to observe their individual peculiarities, but to ascertain 

 many details as to their colouring, particularly of their soft parts, which, from their fading immediately 

 after death, could not otherwise be ascertained. The circumstance of several living examples of the old 

 Columba cruenta of Gmelin, the Red-breasted Pigeon of Latham, being at this time (March 1866) in the 

 Gardens of the Society, enables me to give a correct delineation of a bird which has been made the type 

 of the genus Phlogcenas by Reichenbach — a form of which four species are all that are known. They are 

 all insular birds, being natives of Manilla, Java, Sumatra, the Celebes, and New Guinea. The one here 

 represented is said to be from the Philippines, but from which of them is still uncertain, although we 

 have been aware of the existence of the bird for nearly eighty years ; Latham merely says : — " Perouse 

 met with these, which he called ' Stabbed Doves,' at Morvula, one of the Philippine Islands." Judging 

 from the living examples in the Zoological Society's Gardens there appears to be little or no outward 

 difference in the sexes. Like many other members of the Columbidce or family of Pigeons, they readily 

 become accustomed to captivity ; and if any foreign species could be domesticated and acclimatized in this 

 country, the Red-breasted Pigeon seems to be the one with which the experiment would be most likely 

 to succeed, as their long legs would indicate them to spend much of their time on the ground. 



Forehead and crown delicate grey ; occiput and hinder part of the neck deep violaceous grey with purple 

 reflexions ; back, scapularies, lesser wing-coverts, and sides of the breast slaty grey with purple and red 

 reflexions, each feather with a lunate mark of metallic green at the tip ; throat and breast white below, 

 while all the under surface is of a clear pale cinnamon hue, at the junction of the two colours a large patch 

 of blood-red, giving the bird a wounded appearance, whence the specific name ; middle and greater wing- 

 coverts reddish purple for three-fourths of their length, their tips being grey and forming three bands across 

 the wing ; the primaries and secondaries deep greyish brown, narrowly margined with reddish ; two middle 

 tail-feathers greyish brown, the remainder grey at the base, crossed in the middle by a band of black and 

 tipped with ash-grey; irides dark brown ; bill blackish brown ; nostrils grey; legs and feet purplish red. 



The figures are of the size of life. The plant is the Sonerila margaritacea. 



