15S FKIUSTKKID/K. 



1 have received the following notes tlirou;;h Mr. G. A. Keartland, Melbourne: — " Fnder 

 date 2oth February, iyo8, Mrs. Chas. Clarice, of Maryvale, Queensland, writes : — ' I have 

 a male Bronze-wing { Phaps chahoptcra) mated to a female Partridge Bronze-wing (Geophaps 

 sci'iptii ). The former built a nest high up in a corner of the parrot aviary, on top of a fork, and 

 persuaded the " Squatter " to lay there, which I thinl< was strange, as they build or lay on the 

 ground, and this nest is at least seven feet high. She did not sit very well, but he did, and both 

 eggs were partly incubated when another Pigeon broke them. ,-\boat two years ago the 

 Partridge Bronze-wing disappeared from here (Burdekin River, (Queensland). All my life they 

 have been in hundreds along the Burdekin and Clarke Ivivers, but they liave ,L;one, and no one 

 can account lor it." 



From Bimbi, I'uaringa, (Queensland, Mr. II. (j. Barnard wrote me; — "Atone time Gfopliaps 

 5(i7/i/(7 was very plentiful all through this part of Queensland; especially were they so for a 

 couple of years after the big drought of igoj, but not a Pigeon is left. The" Scjuatter Pigeon " 

 breeds practically all the year in a good season ; two eggs are laid ; the nest is formed by the 

 birds scooping out a hole in the ground, this is lined with soft grass forming a shallow open 

 nest. The young remain in the nest for nearly three weeks, when they are able to Hy short 

 distances, but their llij^ht is e\en then very weak, and they are easily caught." 



Mr. K. 11. Lane, of Orange, New South Wales, writing me in igio, remarked ; — " Although 

 the Partridge lironze-wing (Gcopliaps siripta) was very plentiful on Kiacatoo Station, on the 

 Lachlan River, in the early sixties, I did not find many of their nests, which were simply 

 depressions in the ground, sparingly lined with grasses, and usually contained two eggs or two 

 young ones. I have killed these Pigeons with my stockwhip while they squatted on the ground 

 till one nearly rode over them. They were also plentiful on \Vamban;;alang Station, in the 

 Dubbo I^istrict, in 1870, but have so gradually disappeared that I have only seen one or two 

 pairs there during the past twenty years." 



The late Mr. K. 11. Bennett, writing from Mossgiel, New South Wales, in 1886, remarks: — 

 " Gcopliaps si'i'iptii was rather plentiful some years since on certain parts of the Darling and 

 Lachlan Ivivers, but as I have not visited these localities for a long time, I am unable to say 

 whether they are still to be found there or not. The vicinity of rivers or permanent water are 

 the situations in which this Pigeon delights, and consecjuently it is never found on the distant 

 part of the plains, or the arid but timbered back country. It is usually met with in small 

 companies of four or five individuals, and so close does it lie that it will often suffer itself to be 

 almost trodden on before it will take wing. When disturbed it Hies swiftly off for some distance, 

 and then generally alights on some large, low, horizontal limb or leaning half fallen branch of a 

 tree. From this habit I am of opinion that the power of perching is not possessed by this 

 Pigeon, as in the numerous instances of alighting that have come under my notice I have never 

 seen one where the limb or trunk was not large enough for the bird to stand with its toes fully 

 extended. Tlie breeding season is during the month of October, and the eggs, two in number, 

 are deposited in a slight depression scratched in the ground, slightly lined with grasses." 



The eggs are two in number for a sitting, varying from thick ovals to an ellipse in form, of 

 a uniform faint creamy-white, the shell being close-grained, smooth and slightly lustrous. A 

 set of two taken by the late Mr. G. Barnard on the 14th August, 1887, at Coomooboolaroo, 

 Duaringa, Queensland, measures: — Length (A) 1-21 x o-g inches; (B) 1-23 x o'g inches. 

 Another set of two taken on the 14th August, i88g, measures: — Length (A) i'2i x o-gi 

 inches; (1.!) i-22 x 0-94 inches. A set of two taken on the 25th F'ebruary, 1893, in the same 

 locality measures : — Length (A) i-i2 x 0-93 inches ; (B) 1-14 x 0-93 inches. Other sets were 

 received taken the same year, on the 14th March and the iith October. Another set in Mr. S. 

 Robinson's collection, taken on the 14th November, 1908, at Kurrajong, Queensland, by Mr. E. 

 U. Barnard, measures: — Length (A) fi8 x 0-93 inches; (B) 1-2 x 0-93 inches. A set of two 



