86 PIGEON. 



108— CARUNCULATED PIGEON. 



Columba carunculata, Colombi-galline a barbillon, Temtn. Pig.fol. pi. 11. Id. 8vo. i. 

 p. 415. Levail. Afr. vi. p. 98. pi. 278. 



SIZE of the European Turtle ; length ten inches. Bill red at 

 the base, and black at the point ; front surrounded with a naked 

 red skin, extending to the ears; on the middle of the throat a fleshy 

 kind of red wattle ; the eye also surrounded with a bare red skin ; 

 plumage in general slaty grey, inclining to brown in some lights, 

 in others appearing finely striped with brown ; scapulars and wing 

 coverts silvery grey, the last fringed with white ; rump, under wing 

 coverts, sides, and outer edge of the exterior feather white ; tail very 

 short, and slightly cuneiform, above grey brown, and white at the 

 base beneath, much concealed above with the upper tail coverts ; 

 legs red, daws hooked. 



The female is smaller, and the colour more dull, without the 

 wattle of the male, and the wing coverts bordered with white. 



Inhabits the interior of the Cape of Good Hope, at the foot of 

 the mountain of Namaqua, which being dry and sterile, most other 

 Doves avoid : the nest is made on the ground, in a small hollow, 

 covered with slender sticks, and some fine dry grass ; the eggs six or 

 eight in number, rufous white; the male and female sit alternately: 

 the young, as soon as hatched, are covered with grey down, and keep 

 with their mother, who covers them with the wings like a Hen, and 

 feeds them with ant's eggs, soft insects, and worms; but they subsist 

 afterwards both on insects and grain : these keep all together till they 

 pair for a new brood ; in this, following the nature of other gallina- 

 ceous birds. The young run on the ground like Partridges, and the 

 old ones call after them, as a Hen does her chickens. 



