PLATE II. 
MEGALOPREPIA ASSIMILIS {Bonaparte). 
ALLIED FRUIT-PIGEON. Genus: Megaloprepia. 
ONLY upon a closer comparison than is generally possible can this bird be distinguished from the Magnificent 
Fruit-Pigeon {Megaloprepia niagnifica), with which it is generally confused. Frequenting the leafy tops 
of the highest trees, and seldom to be seen taking long flights, it may readily be mistaken for an immature 
specimen of that species, so similar is it in general appearance. 
For long after its discovery on the islands off the north-east coast it remained doubtful whether it ever 
migrated to the mainland ; but more recently the fact has been fully established that small numbers may yearly 
be met with all along the northern coast wherever its favorite palm tree is found. 
The dissimilarity between the sexes is very slight ; the hen is slightly the smaller of the two and is less 
brightly coloured than the male. 
In its life and habits it exhibits all the general characteristics of the other Fruit-eaters, which need not 
be again detailed. Though a regular visitant to the mainland, it does not appear to breed away from its more 
tropical haunts on the islands. 
The head and throat are light grey, with a rich purple marking along the centre of the throat, extending 
to the belly ; the whole of the back, wings, and tail, bright yellowish green, merging at the tips of the wings 
into bright orange-yellow. 
The illustration is three-quarter life-size. 
MYRISTICIYORA SPI LORRIIOA {Gray). 
WRITE NUT3IEG PIGEON. Genus : Myristicivora. 
THIS singularly shy bird has acquired its popular name from the well-remarked habit it has of exclusively 
frequenting the wild nutmeg tree {llyristica), in the tops of which it may be said to pass its life, except 
during the brief pairing season. Then it commonly selects the denser scrubs or the mangroves, most probably 
guided by their contiguity to fresh water. Here it makes its nest, a more than ordinarily careless structure, the 
few crossed sticks employed barely sufficing to prevent the single egg it is destined to receive from falling 
through to the ground. 
The fruit of the nutmeg is undoubtedly swallowed whole by the bird, and to the process of deglutition 
is left the separation of the nutritive portion, which we know as mace, from the hard and indigestible nut, which 
is voided in flight. Thus this elegant little creature becomes the useful means of disseminating the remarkable 
nutmeg tree, and it is found that some chemical treatment corresponding to that which it undergoes during 
its sojourn within the body of the bird is actually necessary before the nut can be fertilized and induced to take 
root. 
So strictly arboreal is this pigeon in its habits that it is questionable if it ever alights upon the ground, 
and so timid that it is almost impossible to procure specimens unless stratagem is resorted to, for, upon being 
disturbed, it will rise with great rapidity to an immense height, well out of the reach of any destructively-minded 
intruder. 
At sundown little flocks of ten or twenty birds may be observed wending their way to roost, and then 
their quarters may be easily traced by their loud and very deep-toned coo, persistently iterated until night sets in. 
The prevailing colour of the plumage is cream- white ; wing coverts, dark grey; tail, dark grey, merging 
into black at tips and edges of feathers ; irides, brown ; bill, olive, with yellow point. The colouring is identical 
in both sexes. 
The illustration represents the bird three-quarter life-size. 
