3 l6 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
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TOOTHED PIGEON, 
The Top-knot Pigeon ( Lepholdimus antarcticus ) is confined to southeastern 
Australia, where it is found perched in the tallest trees, very rarely conde¬ 
scending to appear on the ground or lower branches. It is gregarious, and is 
occasionally found in such immense flocks as to break down the tops of 
large trees by their accumulated weight. In their passage, they fly so closely 
together that it seems wonderful how they manage to use their wings. It has 
a very large and thick crest of gray feathers, which lies horizontal and pro¬ 
jects some distance back of the head, lending a rather strange appearance to 
the creature. The neck and breast are 
hackled, and the tail feathers spotted with 
white, with some resemblance to a hawk. 
The Toothed Pigeon ( Didunculus strigi-1 
rostris ) is a creature that is supposed to com-' 
pose the link between pigeons and the dodo, 
hence the name didunculus , or little dodo. It 
is also called toothed , because the lower bill 
is notched like that of the toucan. The 
upper mandible is very large and sharply 
curved, by which structure it is able to dig 
up the soft roots of several plants upon 
which it feeds. The size is somewhat greater 
than that of our domestic pigeons , and the plumage is attractive, being a 
raven-black on head, neck, breast and abdomen, and the tail and under 
coverts a rich chestnut. It is found only in the Navigator Islands of the Pacific. 
The Passenger Pigeon ( Edopistes migratorius) is our best known Amen 
ican bird of the pigeon genera, though within the last few years it has so nearly 
disappeared that it is seldom seen except in the Indian Territory, where one or 
two large roosts are still visited. When a boy I have seen these pigeons fly¬ 
ing overhead in such enormous flocks that the sky would be fairly shut out from 
view by their bodies for hours at a time. 
These migrations were very frequent, caused 
by the very great devastations the birds 
wrought, requiring almost constant change 
of place to procure food. It is perfectly 
within the bounds of reason to say, as did 
Wilson, that as many as a billion wild 
pigeons have been seen to pass over a single 
course in three days, and that the con¬ 
sumption of food by these birds in the same 
time was equal to seventeen million bushels. 
Incredible as their numbers were twenty-five 
years ago, only a bare remnant now remains, 
and within, a like period they will probably 
become extinct. . So quickly do they leave their feeding places and so great is 
their speed of flight that specimens have been shot in northern New York 
with crops yet filled with rice taken from the savannas of the far South. As 
digestion is accomplished in these birds in less than twelve hours, the distance 
of. more than one thousand miles must have been traversed in less than that 
brief time. 
VbfA 
PASSENGER PIGEON. 
