Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS

THE GULLS AND THEIR ALLIES

THE TRUE PIGEONS

Female Pigeon

The female is similar but smaller, the colors being duller and the breast grayish green. In the genus Ptilopus as at present restricted the tail is of moderate length and the wing is rather long, while the head possesses a well-defined cap. In Grey's Painted Pigeon (P. greyi) of New Caledonia and near-by islands, the upper parts are bronze-green, the upper part of the head purple-rose or magenta, margined behind with yellow, while the chin and throat are yellowish, the breast grayish green, the middle of the abdomen dull purple, and the lower abdomen purple tinged with orange. The bill is green with a gray tip and the feet dull crimson.

In Lamprotreron, a genus of two species, ranging from Celebes through the Moluccas and the Papuan Islands to Australia, the wing is short and there is a broad band of blue-black separating the breast from the abdomen. In L. superba, the Superb Fruit Pigeon, the cap is purple-violet,”the occiput and sides of the head olive-green, sides and back of the neck bright rufous; back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, scapulars, and wing-coverts green; scapulars, inner greater wing-coverts, and inner secondaries with deep blue spots near the tip; smaller wing-coverts near the bend of the wing deep blue; quills black, the primaries with narrow outer yellow edges; chin and greater part of the cheeks pale gray; breast pale gray with the base of the feathers purple; below the breast a broad black band, more or less tinged with blue or green; abdomen white, the flanks green with two white bands; under tail-coverts white with a longitudinal green spot on the inner web and tinged with pale yellow on the apical edge; bill olive-green with the tip yellowish, the feet rose-color.”As Gould well says: “the hues of no other feathered creature can surpass newly moulted individuals of this bird.”Almost equally beautiful are many of the others, but of these; we may only mention the exquisite little Eugenia's Pigeon (Ionotreron eugenia) of the Solomon Islands. About eight and one half inches long, the upper parts are bronze-green, with the head pure white, the throat and chest purple-red surrounded by a dull purple band, while the bend of the wing, as well as several spots along the coverts, is light gray, and the under parts are grayish green, becoming whitish on the abdomen.

Confined to the Fiji Islands is a group of these species belonging to the genus Chryscenas, which are characterized by having the inner webs of the flight-quills yellow or orange-yellow. Of these perhaps the most beautiful is C. victor, a bird only about seven inches in length, in which the general plumage of the male is bright orange, with the head and throat olive-yellow, and the bill and feet green. In the female the entire plumage is rich green, yellowish and lighter on the head and throat, and with the bill and feet mainly black.

In C. viridis the general plumage of the male is dark green with a golden gloss on back and breast and greenish yellow on head and neck, while the female is plain green. Both these species are about seven inches in length.

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