Gould stated 'The accompanying Plate represents one of the most remarkable birds I have ever had the pleasure of making known to the scientific world - and one so totally different from any other form previously characterised that I have made it the type of a new genus (Otidiphaps).'
He described this beautiful bird as 'large, surpassing that of a Wood-Pigeon... wings, short and round, armed with a spur at the shoulder; tail feathers twenty (!) in number, round and moderately long; tarsi very long for a Pigeon,... toes covered with thick plate-like scales;... general structure adapted for the ground rather than for trees or for flight.'
The bird is depicted in two positions, about lifesize.
J. Gould, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 1870, V, series 4, p.62
J. Gould, Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1870, p.4
DISTRIBUTION: New Guinea region: New Guinea, Batanta and Waigeu Islands, Aru Islands and Ferguson Island