Fruit-eating Pigeons, OB the contrary, have inner been round far inland. They arc content to revel 
amongsi thai prolific growth of Bemi-tropioal vegetal ion which is characteristic of the country drained hy the 
northern Btreams which pour their waters into the Pacific Ocean. Within the recesses of those leafy groves, 
n Qeri thousands of botanical marvels greel the explorer at every mile, where the luxuriant foliage and interlacing 
\ [lies oomhine to presen e perpei ual shade to all below, the Flock and other Tree-feeding Pigeons enjoy a perpetual 
feast. No droughts, floods, or frosts would seem to affect them. Nature is ever bountiful in supplying their 
grants ; Buoh is the endless variety of tree and shrub growing in these vast scrubs, that an abundant and constant 
succession of fruits is aever denied them. Such fruits as they select are succulent, and the little water they 
require is always to be found in the holes or pockets of the trees whereon they feed, and build, and breed, and 
Rutter awa) their harmless, amorous lives, without know ing any necessity for ever descending to the ground. 
All the Pigeon genera are remarkable for the especial beauty and brilliancy of their plumage. 
In no other tribe of the feathered race do we meet with such diversity of effect so adapted to gratify and delight 
the eye; and this is especially true of the Australian representatives, among which arc many members vying 
with the Parroi and the Humming-bird in the brilliancy and lustre of their dress ; and even in the more modest 
representatives, the chaste assortment of rich and well-blended greys of every shade, intermingled with prismatic 
hues varying with each motion of the birds, never fails to command our admiration and delight. 
One of their chief tribal characteristics was well seized by the ancients, when to the Pigeon was 
assigned the place, by reason of the marked affection exhibited between the sexes, of the constant and appropriate 
attendant upon the Goddess of Love. 
The voice, or note, of the whole family consists only of guttural sounds or "coos," varying from the 
most tender and plaintive, in some, to the hoarse and unpleasant in others. 
Of all the family \J\e flesh is wholesome and nutritious, and generally palatable; while, of some, it is 
exceptionally delicate, and so easily digestible as to render it especially valuable for invalids, for Avhom it is in 
much request. 
It is sad to have to record that year by year many of the species hereinafter enumerated are rapidly 
disappearing from their haunts, and that soon we may anticipate the total extermination of several of our rarer 
indigenous Pigeons as ch aring and settlement progress in the country. 
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