0ARPOPHAGA LUCTUOSA.
Torres Strait Fruit Pig-eOrif
Columba hctuosa, Temm; PI. Col, 247.— Syst'. sp, 23,
'Mo-Jcoii, Aborigines of’Port Essington. ;
T his bird is commonly known by the name of the Torres Strait Pig|6h;%0ni*it8 being so abundant there
that few voyagers pass the straits during its breeding-season without encountering it. It arrives in the
Cobourg Peninsula at th e 'ib eg ^ ^ ^ g if^ November aud departs again in April or May. Like every other
true Garpophaga it living among the branches of the highest trees and feeding upon
various fruits and berries. Mr. 'Gilbert’s notes respecting it are as follows f ^ l ^ j ^ b i r d may generally be?
seen in great- numbers:wherever the wild nutmeg is to be found, and so exclusively doés it confine itself to
the,'trees in search of food, that during the whole time I was in the c |||n p y th ev e r saw one rise from the
ground, nor did I meet with any person in the settlement who had. It flies ‘ very rapidly, and generally mounts
up to so great a height as to be beyond the range of 9.; gun. The only time at iyhich Ij could succeed in
procuring specimens was the evening, when it resorts to the mangroves, on the small islands lying off the
shore, or to the dense thickets a short distance inlagcf r at this, time’' it% inay be seen arriving in small
flocks of from ten to fifteen to roost -for the night;; T that B the other pigeons, is a coo, but
at times; particularly when it has paired, it is much louder and deeper tban that, of any other species I ever
heard./.
“ Impairs and commences breeding immediately after its arrival in November, and I have obtained eggs
as late as the middle of January. The nest is formed of a few sticks laid across one another in opposite
directions, and is so slight a structure that the eggs may usually be seen through the interstices from beneath,
and it is so flat that it appears wonderful how the eggs are retained upon it when the branch is
waving about in the wind; it is’ usually built on the horizontal branch of a mangrove, and it would seem that
it prefers for this purpose a branch overhanging water. That i§jff||fbr lays more than one egg appears to
me without a doubt, for upon visiting Table Head River on the eastern side of the harbour of Port Essington
I found no less than twenty nests, all; of which contained either a singl e egg or a single young bird.”
The whole of the plumage buffy white, with the exception of the primaries, secondaries and greater wing-
coverts, which are greyish black, and the tips of the tail-feathers, which are black, the black becoming of
less extent as the feathers recede from the centre of the ta il^ ^® the outer feather is only slightly tipped;
this feather is also broadly margined with black on the outer web for three-fourths of its length from the
base; the under tail-coverts also have an irregular band of black near the tip of each feather; irides dark
brown 5 bill dark greenish grey, except the tip, which is- light yelfo/v. ,
The figure is o fth e natural size.