MK(iALOPKKFI A. 



10.') 



Megaloprepia assimilis. 



ALLIED FKUIT-PKiEON. 



Carpoii/iru/a assimilis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1850, p. '201 ; /:'/., Bds. Austr., fol. Suppl., pi. ()7 



(18G9). 

 .]f,;/,ilopivpia assimilis, Gould, Hanilbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. Ill (1865); North, Proc. Linn. 

 Soc. N.S.W., Ser. 2, Vol. TT., p. 410 (1887); SaU'ad., Oat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXI., 

 p. 168 (1893) ; Sharpe, Hand-I. Bds., Vol. L, p. 62 (1899). 

 Adult male. — Similar to l.h>; mlult male of M kgaloi'uepi A m agnifica, IjiU smaUer. Total h'ajlh 

 I'f inches, whig 7%T, tail 6, bill 0-H, tarsus 105. 



Adult frmalr. — 'Similar in jilnmnge tn tlif male. 

 Distribution. — North-eastern (Jueenslaiid. 



/"15V" 1'- Allied I'^iiit-Pijieon is f^enerally distributed over the eastern portions of the Cape 

 -L York Peninsula, and occurs as far south as the neighbourhood of Cairns, the types 

 bein;' obtained by the late Mr. J. MacGillivray during the stay at Cape York of H.M.S. 

 " Rattlesnake." Adult specimens in the Australian Museum Collection procured in the latter 

 locality by the late Mr. J. A. Thorpe, vary in wing-measurement from 7 to 7-5 inches. Adult 

 specimens obtained in the Bellenden Ker Range by Messrs. E. J. Cairn and R. Grant vary in 

 wing-measurement from 7-5 to 8 inches. This Pigeon is in every respect a miniature form of the 

 preceding species, and were specimens collected at intermediate localities between Cairns and 

 Wide Bay, they would, doubtless, be found to gradually merge into the typical M. jmit;iiijica. 

 The wing-measurement of adult males procured at Wide Bay, Queensland, and as far south as 

 the Bellinger River, New South Wales, is 9 inches. 



There is a fine series of .1/. assimilis in the Australian Museum Collection, procured by 

 Messrs. E, J. Cairn and Robt. Grant on the Bellenden Ker Range, and in the neighbourhood of 

 Cairns. One curiously marked specimen has a narrow blue band across the centre of one of the 

 tail-feathers. Mr. Grant informs me that one day, in company with Mr. Cairn, the latter fired 

 at one of these pigeons in a large fig-tree, and it fell to the ground, and to their astonishment 

 with it also one each of Ptilopus shuiinsoiii and P. siipcrlnis, which they had not seen at the time. 



From the Bloomfield River District, North Queensland, Mr. Frank Hislop has sent me 

 the following note :—" The Allied Fruit-Pigeon (Megaloprepia assimilis) is generally found in the 

 scrub, although nests are sometimes found in the forest land. The nest is a small Hat structure 

 of sticks, and generally built near the end of a horizontal branch : only one egg is laid for a 

 sitting. These birds live on fruits and berries, and generally kinds that have large stones in 

 them." 



Mr. II. G.Barnard, Bimbi, Duaringa, Queensland, writes me as follows: — "The Allied 

 Fruit-Pigeon f A/fi,'<7/i)/')r/'/(7 rtss/;;»7(s^ is plentiful in the scrubs of Cape York, and its nests are 

 easily found, many being placed so low to the ground one can reach the nest with the hand. 

 These birds breed freely along the edge of the mangrove swamps, but never far out in the 

 swamp; like Ptilopus supevbus they are very fond of building on the top of a Palm leaf; only a 

 single egg or young one was found in each nest." 



A nest taken by the late Mr. G. Masters at Cape York, on the 17th September, 1875, 

 during the "Chevert" E.xpedition, fitted out by the late Sir William Macleay, from which the 

 sitting bird was flushed and procured, was, he informed me, simply a few dried sticks placed 

 cross- wise on the horizontal branch of a tree. 



