78 The Official Guide to the 
bird, Geopelia tranguilla, the Australian “ Peaceful 
Dove,” is in close proximity to the largest of the race, 
the magnificent Crowned pigeon of New Guinea, Goura 
coronaia. Perhaps one of the most beautiful of the 
pigeons is the Nicobar Pigeon, remarkable not only for 
the irridescent hues of its plumage, but also for the long 
sword-shaped feathers which adorn its neck. Allied to 
the doves is the curious bird known as the Tooth- 
billed Pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris), an inhabitant, 
of the Samoan Islands. This bird is interesting from 
its fancied resemblance to the extinct Dodo, hence it 
has been called the Dodlet, intended as a diminutive 
of Dodo. The resemblance however appears to be 
rather fancied than real. Nearly allied are the Sand- 
grouse, in one genus of which, Syrrhaptes, is the bird 
whose strange and unexpected visits to Europe have 
been mentioned when speaking of the British collec- 
tion, in which specimens killed in this county may be 
seen. This remarkable bird is appropriately named 
Syrrhaples paradoxus, 
Case X. 
is a very attractive one, containing the birds of the sixth 
order, PSITTACI, of which there are six families, 
containing some 500 species. .Many of these are 
familiar to us as cage-birds—Parrots, Lories, Cockatoos, 
Macaws, and Parrakeets, forms which are so well known 
as to require no general description; but others are 
very rare and remarkable birds, not the least so 
those belonging to the first family Nestorip#. ‘These 
are fruit and insect eaters, with one apparently abnor- 
mal exception, and are entirely confined to the New 
Zealand region. We are fortunate in possessing 
examples of. three of the five species; the first of 
which is JVestor meridionalts, the “Kaka” of the 
