TOOTH-BILLED PIGEON .—Didicnculus Strigirostns . 
In the Samoan islands of the Pacific is found a bird of extreme rarity and 
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 that were greatly similar to those of the Tooth-Billed Pigeon. 
On account of its close relationship with the Dodo, it has received from some 
Zoologists, the generic name of Didunculus, or Little Dodo, while others have 
given it the title of Gnathodon, or Toothed-jaw, in allusion to the structure of its 
beak. * 
The food of this bird consists largely of the soft bulbous roots of several plants. 
The whole contour of the Tooth-bill is remarkable, and decidedly quaint ; its 
rounded body seeming hardly in accordance with the large beak, which is nearly 
as long as the head, and is greatly arched on the upper mandible. The lower 
mandible is deeply cleft into three distinct teeth near its tip. 
In colour it is rather a brilliant bird. The head, neck, breast, and abdomen 
are glossy greenish black, and upon the shoulders and the upper part of the back 
the feathers are velvety black, each having a crescent-shaped mark of shining 
green near its extremity 
The total length of this bird is about fourteen inches. 
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