118 
OCEANIC EUOIT-PIGEON. 
the appearance of these two birds, might naturaliy 
create a suspicion that tliey were merely varieties of 
one species ; but the observations of naturalists, and 
particularly of M. Lesson, prove that they are quite 
distinct ; for, in addition to a constant and unvary- 
ing difference in certain parts of the plumage, and in 
the form of the frontal knob, they possess a different 
geographical distribution, the Carpophaga cmea, or 
Nutmeg Pigeon, being a native of continental India, 
the Moluccas, and New Guinea, the Carpophaga 
oceanica an inhabitant of the Caroline and other 
islands of the Pacific. The oceanica is also inferior 
in size, being nearly a third less than the cciiea, the 
latter measuring nearly eighteen inches in length, the 
former not more than fourteen. It belongs to the 
same group as the subject of the preceding plate, 
possessing a similar form in the characteristic mem- 
iters of the bill, wings, and feet. Its food in the Isle 
of Onalan, where it was met with in great numbers 
by the Coquille, in her voyage of discoveiy, consist- 
ed of a berry, not named, but which abounded in all 
the wooded districts of that island. 
where, speaking of the pigeons, it says, “ Nous citerons des 
belles colombes Muscadivorcs,dont plusieuis e'taient privdes 
de la caroncle noire et arrondie que presentaient le plus 
grand-nombre des cspcces. Get orgrine entierement grais- 
seauz, ne doit-s’elever sur le base de la mandibule superieure 
qu’a I’epoque que se distend pour recevoir ce fluide, resultat 
d’une vie en exces, doit aprds la fecondation, sedissiper, se 
rccouvrir, et ne plus paraitre au dessus des narines que 
cumme une legere fronfure cutande.” 
