RASORES. 269 



specimens were collected, in the month of January, they did not pre- 

 sent any appearance of a knob on their bills. The irides are red; the 

 bill is black, with a light blue tip ; the feet are dirty lake-red. 



" We found this bird generally amongst the thick foliage of the 

 various species of Ficus, and other fruit trees." 



This bird is named in honor of Charles Pickering, M.D., one of the 

 naturalists of the Exploring Expedition, and now highly distinguished 

 as an American Zoologist. In addition to the valuable volumes of 

 the series of the Expedition of which he is author, Dr. Pickering has 

 contributed much of high interest to our present work, and which we 

 have transferred from his manuscript journal, by his permission, most 

 cheerfully and promptly given. 



3. Genus PTILINOPUS, Swcdnson, Zool. Jour. I, p. 473 (1825). 

 1. Ptilinopus purpuratus [Gmelin). 



Columha purpurata, Gm. Syst. Nat. I, p. 784 (1788). 



Columha kurukuni, BoNNATERRE, Ency. Meth. p. 240 (1st ed. 1790). 



Columha taitensis, Less. Zool. Coquille, Ois. I, p. 297 (1826). 



Ptili)iop>us furcaliis, Peale, Zool. Exp. Exp. Birds, p. 191 (1st ed. 1848).* 



Atlas, Ornithology, Plate XXX. Adult male and female. 



Excellent specimens of this very handsome species are in the col- 



* " General form rounded ; head, neck, and breast cinereous, tinged with green ; the 

 bases of the feathers lead-color ; the tips of those on the breast bifurcate ; a pale purple 

 spot reaches from the bill to the vertex ; irides dark orange ; feet dusky purple ; back, 

 rump, and wing-coverts bronze-green ; wings blue, with green reflections ; plumbeous 

 beneath ; the first quill six-tenths of an inch shorter than the others, and almost even 

 throughout its length, or regularly narrowing towards the tip ; shafts black ; secondaries 

 edged with pale yellow; belly olive-green ; vent and under tail-coverts sulphur-yellow; 

 tail blue-green, with golden reflections ; a cinereous spot in each feather, near the tip 

 (in some specimens, it forms a distinct cinereous band) ; under parts of the tail plumbe- 

 ous, with a cinereous terminal baud. 



" Total length nine and one-half inches ; tail three and four-tenths inches ; bill four- 

 tenths of an inch ; tarsi one inch ; extent of wings sixteen and three-fourths inches. 

 Male. Killed in September. 



" The females vary but little from the males ; they are less brilliant in plumage, and 

 have the same frontal spot, and the cinereous band on the tail." (Peale, as above.) 



68 



