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here, as a somewhat curious fact, that at the Chatham Islands, in 1855, I observed one of these biids 
flying and consorting with a flock of common dove-cot Pigeons which had taken to the woods and 
become partially wild. 
There is probably no New-Zealand bird that could be domesticated to greater advantage than 
this Pigeon. Some years ago a tame, healthy, and remarkably handsome one was exhibited at the 
Wellington Pigeon and Poultry Show, and carried off the palm against every competitor in that 
department. Another, which lived for many months in the Acclimatization Gardens at Christchurch, 
was shipped home to the Zoological Society, but did not long survive the change of climate. 
The New-Zealand Pigeon is strictly arboreal, and appears, as a rule, to prefer the densest foliage. 
When not engaged in filling its capacious crop with fruit or berries, it generally reposes on a thick 
limb, with the tail drooping and half-spread, the wings closely folded, and the head diawn in , but 
on the slightest alarm it stretches up its lustrous neck, and gently sways its head to and fro, uttering 
a scarcely audible coo , slowly repeated. It rises with an awkward flapping, and flies direct, with a 
rapid opening and closing of its wings, producing the sound so familiar to the gunners eai. In the 
bush it generally flies low, but when settling it habitually makes a graceful upward sweep in its 
course. 
When seen from the front its ample white breast is a very conspicuous object in the bush, and 
the woodcut at the end of this article (from one of my own sketches) will recall its showy appearance 
to those who are familiar with the bird in its native haunts. 
I have remarked a peculiar soaring habit which this bird indulges in during the breeding-season. 
Mounting high in the air, in a direct upward course, it suddenly opens its wings and tail to theii full 
extent, and glides slowly downwards in an oblique direction, and without any apparent movement 
of those members. I very frequently observed this peculiar soaring flight during my ascent of the 
Upper Wairoa river, north of Auckland, where the solitudes of the endless pine- forests afford this 
species a secure and quiet breeding-place. 
On the wing the whiteness of the underparts is very conspicuous, owing to the manner in which 
the body is swayed from side to side. 
This species retires to the high wooded lands of the interior to breed ; and its nest is therefore 
seldom met with. It is a very rude, flat structure, composed of twigs loosely placed together, and 
containing generally only one, but sometimes two eggs. Ihese are perfectly oval in form, measuiing 
1-9 inch in length by 1’4 in breadth; the surface is smooth without being glossy, and of the purest 
white. Mr. J. D. Enys informs me that on the 8th of January, 1862, he found a nest containing 
one egg perfectly fresh, on the 31st of the same month another containing a young Pigeon fully 
fledged, and on the 3rd of February two more nests, in both of which there was a solitary half- 
grown bird. 
A nest in the Canterbury Museum (received from Milford Sound) consists merely of a layer of 
dry twigs, so loosely put together that the eggs are visible from beneath. 
There is another nest, from Little River (April 1873), which forms a very pretty object. It 
is placed on the lateral fork of a branch of totara, supported underneath by an epiphytic growth 
of native mistletoe ( Lorcintlms micranthus), which, although dried, still retains its leaves. The nest 
(which contains a single egg) is very slight, and admits the light through its foundations, being 
formed of slender dry twigs of Lejjtospermum laid across each other and forming a shallow depres- 
sion, with the ends of the twigs projecting all round. Slight as the structure is, however, there is 
some appearance of finish about it. 
In the Rev. Mr. Spencer’s fine old garden at Tarawera, where well-grown specimens of English 
oak, elm, and walnut mingle in rich profusion with almost every kind of native tree and shrub, a 
pair of these birds some time ago took up their abode and bred for two successive years, at a spot 
