CARPOPHAGA LUCTUOSA.

Torres Strait Fruit Pigeon. |

   
  
    
   
  
    
  
 
   
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 

Columba luctuosa, Temm. Pl. Col., 247.—Wagl. Syst. Av. Columba, sp. 23. i
Mo-koit, Aborigines of Port Essington.

Tus bird is commonly known by the name of the Torres Strait Pigeon, from its being so abundant there i]
that few voyagers pass the straits during its breeding-season without encountering it. It arrives in the
Cobourg Peninsula at the beginning of November and departs again in April or May. Like every other
true Carpophaga it is strictly arboreal, living among the branches of the highest trees and feeding upon |
various fruits and berries. Mr. Gilbert’s notes respecting it are as follows :— This

bird may generally be Ca
seen in great numbers wherever the wild nutmeg is to be found, and so exclusively does it confine itself to

the trees in search of food, that during the whole time I was in the country I never 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 a gun. The only time at which I could succeed in )
procuring specimens was the evening, when it resorts to the mangroves on the small islands lying off the | i
shore, or to the dense thickets a short distance inland; at this time it may be seen arriving in small | 1H
flocks of from ten to fifteen to roost for the night. Its note, like that of the other pigeons, is a coo, but i)
at times, particularly when it has paired, it is much louder and deeper than that of any other species I ever
heard.

“It pairs and commences breeding immediately after its arrival in November, and I have obtained eges Hii
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 be- i | {|
neath, and it is so flat that it appears wonderful how the eges are retained upon it when the branch is | | 1]
waving about in the wind; it is usually built on the horizontal branch of a mangrove, and it would seem that 1
it prefers for this purpose a branch overhanging water. That it never 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 single egg or a single young bird.” i !

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 tail, until 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 Ve
brown ; bill dark greenish grey, except the tip, which is light yellow.

The figure is of the natural size.