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THE TOOTH-BILLED PIGEON. 
spreading the other over their bodies so as to form a very shallow tent, each quill-feather being 
separated from its neighbor, and radiating around the body. Sometimes the bird varies this 
attitude by stretching the other wing to its full length, and holding it from the ground, at an 
angle of twenty degrees or so, as if to take advantage of every sunbeam and every waft of air. 
While lying in this unique attitude, it might easily pass at a little distance for a moss- 
covered stone, a heap of withered leaves, or a rugged tree-stump, with one broken branch pro- 
jecting to the side. No one would think of taking it for a bird. Unfortunately, it is a diffi- 
cult matter to take a sketch of the bird while thus reposing, for there are so few salient points 
that a very careful outline is needed, and its companions are sure to come and peck it up 
before the sketch can be concluded. 
The cry of this bird is loud and sonorous, and not very easy of description. Some authors 
compare it to the gobblingof a turkey-cock, but I can perceive no resemblance to that sound. 
It is moie of a loud, hollow boom, than anything else, a kind of mixture between a trombone 
and a drum, and every time that the bird utters this note, it bows its head so low that the 
crest sweeps the ground. 
The nest of the Crowned Pigeon is said to be made in trees, the eggs being two in number, 
as is generally the case with this group of birds. Its flesh is spoken highly of by those who 
have eaten it. The general color of this bird is a deep and nearly uniform slate-blue; the 
quill-feathers of the wing and tail being very blackish ash, and a patch of pure white and 
warm maroon being found on the wing. 
TOOTH-BILLED P1GT&ON. —ZHdunculus strigirostris . 
In the Samoan islands of the Pacific, is found a bird of extreme rarity of form, which is, 
as far as is known, unique among the feathered tribes that now inhabit the earth. I say now 
inhabit, because in former days, when the Dodo was still in existence, that remarkable and 
ungainly bird presented a form and structure greatly similar to those of the Tooth billed 
Pigeon. 
On account of its close relationship with the Dodo, it has received from some systematic 
zoologists the generic name of Didunculus, or Little Dodo, while others have given it the title 
of Gfnathodon, or Toothed-jaw, in allusion to the structure of its beak. The food of this bird 
