PIGEONS. 



103 



and especially in tlie Malay Archipelago and Pacific 

 islands, tlicy occur in such profusion and present such 

 singular forms and brilliant colours, that they are sure 

 to attract attention. Here we find the extensive group 

 of fruit-pigeons, which, in their general green colours 

 adorned with patches and bands of purple, white, blue, 

 or orange, almost rival the parrot tribe ; while the 

 golden-green Nicobar pigeon, the great crowned pigeons 

 of New Guinea as large as turkeys, and the golden- 

 yellow fruit-dove of the Fijis, can hardly be surpassed 

 for beauty. 



Pigeons are especially abundant and varied in tropi- 

 cal archipelagoes ; so that if we take the Malay and 

 Pacific islands, the Madagascar group, and the Antilles 

 or West Indian islands, we find that they possess 

 between them more difi'erent kinds of pigeons than all 

 the continental tropics combined. Yet further, that 

 portion of the Malay Archipelago east of Borneo, 

 together with the Pacific islands, is exceptionally rich 

 in pigeons ; and the reason seems to be that monkeys 

 and all other arboreal mammals that devour eggs are 

 entirely absent from this region. Even in South Ame- 

 rica pigeons are scarce where monkeys are abundant, 

 and vice versd ; so that here we seem to get a glimpse 

 of one of the curious interactions of animals on each 

 other, by which their distribution, their habits, and even 

 their colours may have been influenced ; for the most 

 conspicuous pigeons, whether by colour or by their crests, 

 are all found in countries where they have the fewest 

 enemies. 



Picarice. — The extensive and heterogeneous series of 

 birds now comprised under this term, include most of the 



