The powers of flight of this species are very great, its voluminous wing enabling it to pass from one part of the forest to another, or to a new district in a comparatively short space of time; hence flocks may frequently be observed passing over the tops of the trees, forsaking a locality they have exhausted of its supplies and in search of another where food is more abundant.
The nest of this species, like that of the other Columbidæ, is a slight flat structure formed of small sticks and twigs; the eggs are frequently only one, and never more than two in number, of a pure white.
The sexes may be distinguished by the smaller size of the female, and by her colours being less strongly contrasted than those of her mate, the yellowish white of the head and breast blending into the darker colouring of the other parts.
The male has the head, neck and breast white, washed with buff, particularly on the crown; all the upper surface, wings and tail greyish black; all the feathers of the back, rump and lesser wing-coverts bordered with bronzy-purple in some, and greenish purple in others; flanks slate-colour; abdomen dingy-buff; bill for two-thirds from the base beautiful pink-red, covered with a mealy substance; tip of the bill yellowish white tinged with lilac; irides large and of a rich yellowish hazel in some specimens, reddish orange in others; naked skin of the orbits mealy pink-red; feet buff, with the scales pink-red and the nails white.
The figures are of the natural size, and represent the bird feeding on one of the fruits of the brushes called wild cherry by the colonists.
CARPOPHAGA LUCTUOSA.
J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp.
CARPOPHAGA LUCTUOSA.
Torres Strait Fruit Pigeon.
Columba luctuosa, Temm. Pl. Col., 247.—Wagl. Syst. Av. Columba, sp. 23.
M̏o-koit, Aborigines of Port Essington.