LIFE IN LONDON 399 



America, Mexico, and the West Indies, forming the next 

 richest area on the globe. 



But this is not the only feature in which the parrots and 

 the pigeons resemble each other. Both have characteristic 

 forms and colours, which prevail generally over the whole 

 world. In parrots this may be said to be green, varying into 

 yellow, grey, red, and more rarely blue, and, except for a 

 lengthened tail, having rarely any special developments of 

 plumage. In pigeons, soft ashy lilac or brown tints are char- 

 acteristic of the whole group, often with metallic reflections; 

 while soft greens, and sometimes metallic greens, occur in 

 the forest regions of tropical Africa and Asia, but rarely 

 anything approaching to crests or other developments of 

 plumage, 



But as soon as we reach the Moluccas and New Guinea 

 we find a new type of coloration appearing in both groups. 

 Among the lories we find vivid red and crimson, sometimes 

 with a remnant of green on the wings and tail, but often 

 covering the whole plumage, varied with bands or patches 

 of equally vivid blue or yellow, while the red sometimes 

 deepens into a blackish purple. Among the cockatoos we 

 have pure whites and deep black, with highly developed 

 crests, often of great beauty, so that in these two families 

 we seem to depart altogether from the usual parrot type of 

 coloration. 



Still more remarkably is this the case with the pigeons. 

 In the extensive genus of small fruit-pigeons (Ptilonopus) 

 the usual ground colour is a clear soft green, variegated by 

 blue, purple, or yellow breasts, and crowns of equally brilliant 

 colours. Besides these, we have larger fruit-pigeons almost 

 wholly cream white, while the very large ground pigeons 

 of New Guinea possess flat vertical crests, which are unique 

 in this order of birds. The wonderfully brilliant golden green 

 Nicobar pigeon is probably a native of the Austro-Malayan 

 islands, and may have been carried westward by Malay 

 traders, and have become naturalized on a few small 

 islands. 



These peculiarities of distribution and coloration in two 



