A'ESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTRALIA A' BIRDS. 685 



approach, I secreted myself, and desired my aboriginal companion. 

 Natty, to go round and turn the flock towards me. The whole simul- 

 taneously rose as before wth a loud burring noise, so closely packed 

 that had they not passed me at a considerable distance many must 

 have fallen to my shot; as it was I succeeded in obtaining four, two 

 of which were males. About a week afterwards, while returning from 

 a kangaroo hunt on a distant part of the same plain, we approached 

 a small group of myalls ( Acacia pcndula), and Natty suddenly called 

 out, ' Look ! massa ; ' in an instant the air before us seemed literally 

 filled with a dense mass of these birds, wliich had suddenly risen from 

 under the trees at liis exclamation. We had scarcely time to bring our 

 guns to the shoulder before they were seventy or eighty yards off. 

 Our united discharge, however, brought down eight additional speci- 

 mens, all of which, being merely winged, and fluttering about, attracted 

 the attention of oui- kangaroo dogs, and it was with the greatest 

 difficulty they could be prevented from tearing them to pieces. In the 

 midst of the scramble, a Kite, with the utmost audacity, came to the 

 attack, and would doubtless have carried off his share, had not 

 the contents of my second barrel stopped Ms career." 



Leichliardt's Expedition (1847) noticed large flocks of these Pigeons 

 lying on the patches of burnt grass on the plains of Queensland. 



1, have never seen any of the eggs of this Pigeon " pure white," as 

 described by Dr. Ramsay. They always have a faint creamy tone. 



I cannot resist giving at length Mr. Price Fletcher's (" The Bush 

 Naturalist ") fascinating field observations, as they appeared in " Tlie 

 Quecnslander," 25th May, 1878, regai-ding the Flock Pigeon. He 

 writes : " I was camped one September day at a large water-hole about 

 one hundred miles north-west from the Cloncurry. About half-past 

 four thev began to come in from the plains ; being so used to flocks 

 of them, I at first paid no particular attention, but, getting up and 

 looking round, I was astonished to find that as far as the eye could 

 see in a north-westerly direction there was one continuous stream of 

 these birds, apparently making for this water. Settling on the edge 

 of the hole, I gave myself up to the pleasure of obser\'ing them. Tliese 

 Pigeons are most pecuhar drinkers. Most birds are very deliberate 

 over this matter, and even by their lifting up their heads heavenwards 

 seem to retmii thanks ; not so our vigorous Pigeon friends : they are 

 not at all reverential, but drink as though their very Hfe depended 

 upon doing so quickly — as if the water would dry up before they 

 could taste it. A flock, after flying several times swiftly round and 

 round the lagoon, suddenly swoops down at a convenient spot ; 

 plunging their beaks into the water up to the eyes, they give two or 

 three hasty gulps, and then suddenly, as if alanned, they rise up and 

 fly off again, before, I am siue, one-half have had time to touch the 

 water. After flying round in wide circles, they again repeat the 

 performance till, I suppose, at last, they do manage all to get satisfied. 

 I cannot help thinking that the peculiar manner the blacks have of 

 hunting them, and which I shall presently describe, has something to 

 do witli this strange method of drinking. At this hole, on this par- 

 ticular afternoon, they kept up these manoeuvres till sunset, and the 



