Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS

THE GULLS AND THEIR ALLIES

THE TRUE PIGEONS

Fruit Pigeons

The true Fruit Pigeons comprising the group Carpopha-ginaz number about seventy-five species, disposed in eleven genera. They are birds of large size, some of them indeed being among the largest of the family, agreeing with the last group in the rather thin bill and the absence of a yellow wing-band, but differing from them in the generally longer bill which is very distensible at base, thus permitting them to swallow fruits of large size. The plumage is not so variegated as in their relatives just described, and in all but one of the genera the tail consists of fourteen feathers, the exception (Hemi-phaga) having but twelve, and in all but one the head is without a crest.

The first that we may mention is a monotypic form (Serresius galeatus) from the Marquesas Islands, distinguished by having the feathered skin on the forehead of a saddle-like shape and covering half the bill. The plumage is dark shining green above, with head, neck, and lower parts dark gray.

The possession of a fleshy knob at the base of the bill characterizes the genus Globicera, which embraces eight species of the Polynesian and the Papuan islands. Several of the species are confined to single islands and are only known from the type specimens collected some sixty years ago. But little is known of their habits and it is not improbable some of them may now be extinct.

The typical Fruit Pigeons to the number of more than fifty species were formerly comprised in the genus Carpophaga, but by elevating what are sometimes considered subgenera to full rank, the number in this genus has been reduced to about twenty-five. In these the general plumage is mostly metallic on the upper parts, while the tail is of uniform color and the inner primaries of normal shape. As the appearance and habits of the various species is quite similar it may be necessary to describe only two of these forms.

Thus the Nicobar Fruit Pigeon (C. insularis), a laird some eighteen or nineteen inches long, has the head, neck, upper mantle, breast, and abdomen gray, while the back, rump, and wings are dark metallic green, and the under tail-coverts dull chestnut. The Imperial Fruit Pigeon (C. cenea), which is widely spread through the Indian peninsula, Ceylon, the Indo-Chinese countries to the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines, is about seventeen inches in length, with much the same coloration as the last except that the under tail-coverts are deep chestnut. Certain other species, such as C. rosacea, have more or less of a vinous color over the upper parts and breast.

The genera formerly included in Carpophaga may be briefly enumerated. Thus Ptilocolpa of the Philippine Islands may be known by having the first primary much scooped on the inner web, and the plumage grayish green above with the crop region ashy gray or coppery, and the breast and abdomen some shade of chestnut. Three species are known.

The group of nine species referred to Zonophaps have the upper plumage metallic golden green, often more or less purple or coppery, and the tail with a gray band near the tip or middle. In Ducula, the seven species of which range from India through the Burmese countries and the Malay Peninsula to the Sunda Islands, the tail is rather long with a broad light band at the tip, while the inner primaries are broad and obliquely cut at the extremity.

Quite distinct from all these is the monotypic Cryptophaps poscilorrhoa of the northern Celebes, which may be recognized by the naked lores and a white band at the tip of the tail, the general color being shining black, glossed with olive-green. In the last genus (Zoncenas), which includes eight species, all of the Papuan Islands, the lores are feathered, but there is a broad naked band surrounding the eye, and the plumage is slate-gray or slate-black.

 

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