Part 39

“This bird,” says Mr. Gilbert, “which at Port Essington is termed the Partridge, from its habits much resembling those of that bird, exhibits a departure in several of its essential characters from the typical Pigeons. In its general habits, flight, voice, mode of incubation, and the character of its newly hatched young, it differs considerably from all its congeners. It is rather abundant in all parts of the Peninsula, is mostly seen in small families and always on the ground, unless when disturbed or alarmed; it then usually flies into the nearest tree, generally choosing the largest part of a horizontal branch to perch upon. When it rises from the ground its flight is accompanied with a louder flapping or burring noise than I have observed in any other Pigeon.

“Its note is a coo, so rolled out that it greatly resembles the note of the Quail, and which, like that bird, it scarcely ever utters but when on the ground, where it frequently remains stationary, allowing itself to be almost trod upon before rising. Its favourite haunts are meadows covered with short grass near water, or the edges of newly burnt brush. It would seem that this species migrates occasionally from one part of the country to another; for during the months of September and October not a single individual was to be seen, while at the time of my arrival and for a month after they were so abundant that it was a common and daily occurrence for persons to leave the settlement for an hour or two and return with several brace; in the latter part of November they again appeared, but were not so numerous as before; and in the January and February following they were rarely to be met with, and then mostly in pairs inhabiting the long grasses clothing the moister parts of the meadows.

“This bird incubates from August to October, making no nest, but merely smoothing down a small part of a clump of grass and forming a slight hollow, in which it deposits two eggs, which are greenish white, one inch and a quarter long by seven-eighths of an inch in breadth. The young bird on emerging from the egg is clothed with down like the young of the Quail.”

Eyes surrounded with a large naked space of a bright reddish orange colour; head and all the upper surface olive-brown; throat white, the tips of the last feathers grey, forming a surrounding margin of that colour; on the cheeks a large brownish grey spot, nearly insulated by the large space of the eyes being surrounded by a narrow band of white, the feathers of which are tipped with black; chest reddish brown; on the centre of the breast a few of the feathers are clear grey, margined at the tip with black; breast and abdomen purplish olive-brown; flanks white; lower part of the abdomen and vent buff; primaries and secondaries dark brown, margined with pale brown; the outer webs of the three or four last secondaries, and one or two greater coverts for two-thirds of their length from the base rich purple with greenish wavy reflexions; two centre tail-feathers olive-brown, the remainder deep slate-grey at base and black at the extremity; under tail-coverts dark brown margined with light brown; irides of three colours, first a narrow ring of red next the pupil, then a broader ring of pure white, and lastly a narrow one of grey; bill blackish grey; legs and feet bluish grey; back of the tarsi and inner side of the feet yellowish grey.

The figures are those of a male and female of the natural size.

GEOPHAPS PLUMIFERA: Gould.

J. Gould and H.C. Richter lithog. C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

GEOPHAPS PLUMIFERA, Gould. Plumed Partridge Bronze-wing.

Geophaps plumifera, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., February 8, 1842.

This rare and highly interesting species of Pigeon was sent me by my friend B. Bynoe, Esq., who procured it on the north-west coast of Australia. The notes accompanying the bird informed me that “it inhabits the country between Cape Hotham and the island of Depuch; the specimen sent is from the isolated water reaches about 150 miles up the Victoria River. It congregates on the ground and rises like a Quail, plunging immediately afterwards in the thick long grass.”

In its structure and markings it closely assimilates to the other members of the genus Geophaps; but widely differs from them in its diminutive size, and in the possession of a long and graceful crest springing from the occiput, a character which exists in several of the Gallinacea, and is familiar to every one in the pretty Pewit or Lapwing (Vanellus cristatus) of the British Islands.

Lores and orbits naked, and of a yellowish red; head furnished with a lengthened occipital crest, which with the crown, sides of the neck and chest, and under part of the wing, are light ferruginous; chin black; throat banded alternately with white and black, the latter colour extending to the ear-coverts; on the chest two semilunar marks of white, which meeting form a point in the centre; middle of the abdomen light buff; under tail-coverts brown, with lighter edges; back of the neck, back, rump and upper tail-coverts rufous brown; wings light ferruginous, with the basal half of the feathers silvery grey, the two colours separated by a transverse band of black; primaries rufous brown; secondaries brown, with a large patch of bronze-purple towards their tips; tail black; bill black; feet reddish brown.

The figures are of the natural size.

OCYPHAPS LOPHOTES.

J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

OCYPHAPS LOPHOTES. Crested Pigeon.

Columba Lophotes, Temm. Pl. Col. 142.—Wagl. Syst. Av. Columba, sp. 103.—Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xiv. p. 289. pl. 34.

The Crested Pigeon of the Marshes, Sturt’s two Exp. to the interior of Southern Australia, vol. i. pl. in p. 24.

Turtur? Lophotes, Selby, Nat. Lib. Orn., vol. v. Pigeons, p. 174. pl. 18.

The chasteness of its colouring, the extreme elegance of its form, and the graceful crest which flows backwards from its occiput, all tend to render this Pigeon one of the most lovely of its tribe inhabiting Australia, and in fact I consider it is not surpassed in beauty by any other from any part of the world. It is to be regretted, that owing to its being exclusively an inhabitant of the plains of the interior, it can never become an object of general observation; but, like the Peristera histrionica and Geophaps scripta it can only be seen by those of our enterprising countrymen whose love of exploring new countries prompts them to leave for a time the haunts of civilized man to wander among the wilds of the distant interior, a portion of the country never to be regarded as solitary or uninteresting by those who look with admiration upon the wonderful works of their Creator: the fauna of the interior of Australia has in fact, as I have frequently had occasion to remark in the course of the present work, features peculiarly its own, and its members are eminently interesting both for their novelty and for the beauty and elegance of their form.

As might be supposed, this bird has attracted the notice of all our travellers who have journeyed across the colonial line of demarcation; Captain Sturt mentions it as being numerous on the plains of Wellington valley, and in the neighbourhood of the Morumbidgee. It would seem to affect marshy situations in preference to others, for Captain Sturt observes that he took its appearance to be a sure sign of his approach to a country more than ordinarily subject to overflow; since, on the Macquarie and the Darling, those birds were only found to inhabit the regions of marshes, or spaces covered by the Acacia pendula or the Polygonum junceum. The locality nearest the coast line that I know it to inhabit, is the country near the great bend of the river Murray in South Australia, where it is tolerably abundant; it abounds on the plains at the back of Moreton Bay on the banks of the river Namoi, and is occasionally, but very rarely, seen on the Liverpool Plains. It frequently assembles in very large flocks, and when it visits the lagoons or river-sides for water, during the dry seasons, generally selects a single tree, or even a particular branch, on which to congregate; very great numbers perching side by side, and all descending simultaneously to drink: so closely are they packed while thus engaged, that I have heard of dozens of them being killed by the single discharge of a gun.

Its powers of flight are so rapid as to be unequalled by those of any member of the group to which it belongs; an impetus being acquired by a few quick flaps of the wings, it goes skimming off apparently without any further movement of the pinions. Upon alighting on a branch it elevates its tail and throws back its head, so as to bring them nearly together, at the same time erecting its crest and showing itself off to the utmost advantage.

I met with the nest of this species in a low tree, on the great plain near Gundermein on the Lower Namoi, on the twenty-third of December 1839; like that of the other species of Pigeon, it was a slight structure of small twigs, and contained two white eggs, which were one inch and a quarter long and nearly an inch broad, upon which the female was then sitting.

The sexes are alike in plumage.

Head, face, throat, breast and abdomen grey; lengthened occipital plumes black; back of the neck, back, rump, flanks, upper and under tail-coverts light olive-brown; the upper tail-coverts tipped with white; sides of the neck washed with pinky salmon-colour; feathers covering the insertion of the wing deep buff, each crossed near the tip with a line of deep black, giving this part of the plumage a barred appearance; greater wing-coverts shining bronzy green, margined with white; primaries brown, becoming of a deeper tint as they approach the body; the third, fourth and fifth finely margined on the apical half of their external web with brownish white, the remainder with a narrow line of white bounding the extremities of both webs; secondaries brown on their inner webs, bronzy purple on their outer webs at the base, and brown at the extremity, broadly margined with white; two centre tail-feathers brown, the remainder blackish brown, glossed with green on their outer webs, and tipped with white; irides buffy orange; orbits naked, wrinkled, and of a pink-red; nostrils and base of the bill olive-black; tip black; legs and feet pink-red.

The figures are of the natural size.

PETROPHASSA ALBIPENNIS: Gould.

J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp. ]