Bismarck Imperial-Pigeon

SCI Name:  Ducula melanochroa
Protonym:  Carpophaga melanochroa Proc.Zool.Soc.London Pt3 p.672 pl.42
Taxonomy:  Columbiformes / Columbidae / Ducula
Taxonomy Code:  biipig1
Type Locality:  Duke of York Group.
Author:  Sclater, PL
Publish Year:  1878
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

DUCULA
(Columbidae; Ϯ Mountain Imperial Pigeon D. badia insignis) Nepalese name Dukul for the imperial pigeons (cf. Hindi names Dunkul and Doomkul); "Genus or Sub-genus — DUCULA nobis. — DUKUL OF THE NIPALESE (genericé)    Character of the genus:—bill equal to the head, straight, cylindric, very feeble; both mandibles membranous for three-fourths from the gape; tip of the upper mandible gently inclined—of the lower, strongly compressed; nares broad, linear, obliquely transverse, central; their groove faint; their tect subtumid.  Wings short, not rounded, 3, 4, 5 quills sub-equal and longest; central primaries with their tips wavily truncated.  Tail 14, long, strong and square; tarsi very low, and plumed nearly to the toes laterally, less in front; toes depressed with broad flat soles; lateral fores sub-equal, hind large; nails strong, arched and acuminated; central and hind equal, lateral fores equal, less; orbits nude; plumage simple.  The above is a tedious charcater, but it is a distinct one. Those who love more summary proceedings may perhaps approve the following: "Bill and wings as in Goura; legs and feet as in Vinago."  ...  Lastly, though Ducula, like Vinago, be exclusively arboreal and fruit-eating; the latter is eminently gregarious—the former, almost a solitary.   Species new. DUCULA INSIGNIS. Great Ducula, nobis." (Hodgson 1836); "Ducula Hodgson, As. Res., 19, 1836, p. 160. Type, by monotypy, Ducula insignis Hodgson." (Peters, 1937, III, p. 42).   
Synon. Carpophaga, Carpophagella, Compsoenas, Globicera, Lamprura, Muscadivora, Muscadivores, Myriphaga, Myristicivora, Phaenorhina, Pterocolpa, Ptilocolpa, Rinopus, Serresius, Zonoenas, Zonophaps.

melanochroa / melanochrous
Gr. μελανοχρους melanokhrous  swarthy  < μελας melas, μελανος melanos  black; χροα khroa, χροας khroas  colour, appearance  < χρως khrōs,  χρωτος khrōtos  complexion.