f'TILdPUS 99 



yellowish ; feathers on the foreneck, upper breast and tlanks dull green frin^^ed with yellow ; 

 centre of the lower breast and abdomen yellow washed with orange ; under tail-coverts yellow. 

 \\'ing 4-7 inches. 



'I'lie usual breeding season extends from ( )ctober until the end of l'"ebruary. Mr. J. 

 Kainbird obtained young birds at I^ort I >enison, (Queensland, that had not long left the nest, 

 on the 2ist March, and during the same month the late Mr. George Masters also obtained young 

 birds at I'ine Mountain. 



Ptilopus ewingi. 



E W I N G ' S F K U IT - P I O EON. 



J'li/iuii/nis I irinijii, (.iou\<\, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1S42, p. l',»; iiL, Bd.s. Au.str., fol. Vol. V , pi. ."16 



(1S48); id, Haudbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. 11., p. 107 (18C).5). 

 riih'/iii.-i fiiiHii./i, Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. iMiis., Vol. XXI., p. 96 (1893); 8harpe, Hand-1. Bds., Vol. 

 I., p. .")7 (l.S9!i). 



AnuLT ,M.\LK. — Lik'' t/ie (idu/t iiuilf of Ftilopus swai.n'SONI, bill differing in bf.iny smallrr and 

 having /he forelfail and croivu of (lie head rose-pink, and tltf scapulars and ititiertuost secondaries 

 di'fji blue lo/rards ihe /ij)s ; on Ihe under parts (lie chi/i and centre of t,he throat is i/el/o/u, the feathers 

 on the fore-neck dud yeUounsh-greeti, indistinctli/ tipped frith yeUowisli-greij ; the remainder oj the 

 ■under surface orange-ye.llou\ richer in colour on the abdomen and liaring an irregularly sha/ied 

 patch :if pide rose-pink separating it from the breast in the centre ,• thig/is green, under tail-coverts 

 oranqe-i/eJtou!, richest in colour near the ends of the longer ones. Total length 7':'i inches, unng JpfS, 

 tail :.'■?, bill O'.'i, tarsus (t-{j. 



.\liULT FKM.\LR. — Similar in pln>nnge to tlie nude. 



Diitiibiitioii. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Northern 

 (,)ueensland. 



TfJV WING'S Fruit-Pigeon is a smaller northern form of the preceding species, differing 

 I X from it chiefly in having the forehead and crown of the head rose-pinic, the chin and 

 centre of the throat yellow, and the greater e.\tent of orange-yellow on the remainder of the under 

 parts, which is paler next to the dull yellowish-grey tipped feathers on the foreneck. It is 

 an inhabitant of the north-western and northern portions of the continent. Count Salvadori 

 enumerates specimens in the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,"' from Quail Island, 

 North-westerii .-Vustralia, and from Port Essington in the Northern Territory of South Australia. 

 From the latter part of the continent Mr. George Masters has recorded specimens from Port 

 Darwin. I have also examined a rough skin of a sitting bird, forwarded with the egg to Mr. 

 Charles French, Jnr., Acting Go\'ernment Entomologist of X'ictoria, and obtained near the 

 Daly I^iver, on the 20th February, 1902. In Queensland Mr. H. G. Barnard found it breeding 

 at Somerset, in the extreme north of the Cape York Peninsula. 



It is the smallest of the three purple-crowned Fruit-Pigeons inhabiting Australia, the wing- 

 measurement of the adult male being 4-6 inches. Gould's figure in his folio edition of the 

 " Birds of .Australia" has the central marking on the breast far too grey, instead of a uniform 

 dull rose-pink', and he there remarks : — " In naming this second .\ustralian species ol this 

 beautiful form after the Rev. Thomas J. Ewing, D.D., I am actuated by a desire to pay a just 

 compliment to one who has devoted considerable attention to the literature of ornithology ; I 

 feel assured, therefore, that however objectionable the naming of species after persons may be 

 under ordinary circumstances, it will not in this instance be deemed an inappropriate mode of 

 evincing my sense of the many admirable qualities of a highly esteemed friend." 



' Cai. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXI., p 97 (1S93). 



