ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
THE GULLS AND THEIR ALLIES
THE TRUE PIGEONS
Painted Pigeons
The two remaining groups of Tree Pigeons are distinguished from the first by a much thinner bill and by the absence of the conspicuous yellow band across the wing at the tips of the greater upper wing-coverts. In the first of these groups — the Ptiiopodince — the birds are of small size, with a rather short bill which is not especially distensible at the base as in the other groups, and the plumage is mostly green, though generally much variegated with patches of different colors, often producing very beautiful and striking contrasts.
Of the seventeen genera and one hundred species included in this group, we can mention but few, among them, of course, the beautiful Painted Pigeons, which to the number of seventy-five species were formerly included in the genus Ptilopus, but which are now disposed among a dozen or more genera.
As a whole, the Painted Pigeons may be known by having the plumage generally green, or in any case not entirely deep blue, while the primaries are not divided at the tip, nor are their inner webs either yellow or orange-yellow.
To convey some idea of their great beauty a few species may be briefly described. Thus the Jamboo Pigeon (Leucotreron jambu) of the Malay Archipelago, a bird about ten inches in length, is shining bronze-green above, with the head deep crimson, this color extending from the front to the middle of the crown, behind the eyes and across the ear-coverts to the throat, while a brownish chestnut stripe runs down the chin and middle of the throat, with a spot behind the ears, the sides and front of the neck pure white, which passes into buffy white along the sides of the breast and the whole of the abdomen, contrasting with the middle of the breast, which is a beautiful pink. To complete the picture it may be added the bill is bright yellow and the feet dark red.
previous bird species next bird species
Footer
Footer