1413 F'EKISTF.HID.I!. 



Fully adult birds licjin all parts uf the continent are as a rule precisely similar to one 

 anotlier. Some not quite adult bnds have the hjwer sides of the breast and abdomen creatny- 

 bu(l, the black marking,' on the chin extends down the centre of the throat and joins the black 

 band of feathers arotmd the lower throat, and the bases of the feathers forming' the band across 

 the upper breast are brown. An adult male collected by Mr. K. J. Cairn at Derby, North- 

 western Australia, has the lower portion of the body only faintly washed with creamy-buff. 

 The wing-measurement of adults varies from 4-2 to 4'6 inches. A pair of these birds, which 

 were kept for many years in the a\'iary at the Ijotanic Gardens, Sydney, and which I saw very 

 frequently, were always noted, when heavy in the moult, that their plumage was paler than 

 at any other period of the year. Usually they moulted in March, and were in full plumage in 

 early July. 



As pointed out by me in iSgS, in the "Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,* 

 and more recently in the " Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, in iyii,l 

 Count Salvador! in the " Catalogue of L-Sirds in the British Museum "' has erroneously described 

 Liipliopha/^s ftmiL;iih-a under the name of the present species. Also that (lould's Lophopltaps 

 Icuio^ciitcr was a synonym of his older name, Lophophaps plinnifcra. Seven years later Dr. F,. 

 Hartert also found out that Count Salvadori had mistaken L. fcyiiii'inea for L. pluinifeva, 3.nd 

 in " No\itiates Zoologica-" concluded with the following remati<s ;—" Whether Lflpliopliaps 

 kiiiOf^'iistfi' described from ' iMachrihanish Station,' in South Australia, is slightly different from 

 the typical North-western Australian /////////era must remain doubtful, until specimens have been 

 compared, but the figures and description agree so well with North-western Australian birds, 

 that I am inclined to think they are ijuite the same. li\idently Gould did not lielieve in his 

 own 'species.' It is very amusing to read his excuses for naming it in the '■ Birds of .-Vustralia." 



When working at the Columba' in 191 1 to remove any doubt that existed in the minds of others, 

 I exhibited a series of adult skins of Lipliopliaps pluiiiifcra, from nearly all parts of the continent 

 in which it is found. There were adult specimens from Derby, Fitzroy Ri\er, Wyndham and 

 Cambridge Gulf in North-western Australia, from Crown Point in Central Australia, from the 

 Victoiia River in the Northern Territory of South .\ustralia, and from Normanton in the Gulf 

 District, Northern nueensland ; they were perfectly indistinguishable from each other. Gould, 

 describing the type of Laphoplmps pliniiiffni, remarked that it was from the collection of Mr. 

 Benjamin ISynoe, and was obtained on the north-west coast of Australia. In his folio edition of 

 the " Birds of Austiaiia " he furtlier adds : — "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 one hundred and fifty miles up the \'ictoria Ri\er. 

 It congregates on the ground, and rises lilse a < Hiail, plunging immediately afterwards into the 

 thick long grass." Cape Hotham is in the northern part of the Northern Territory of South 

 Australia, and the island of Depuch just south of Port Iledland, in North-western Australia. 

 It will thus be seen that the habitat given by Gould for L. pliiniifiya covers all the ground in 

 North-western Australia, where it has been obtained by so many collectors since the late Mr. 

 T. H. Bowyer-Bower and Mr. E. J. Cairn first procured specimens, (since the type) in 1886. I 

 have some of the latter specimens now before me, and they are precisely the same as those Mr. 

 G. A. Keartland collected at Crown I'oint, in Central Australia, and others obtained by the late 

 Captain .Armit at Normanton, in the Gulf District in Northern Oueensland. There are also 

 specimens in the collection procured at the Victoria River and other parts of the Northern 

 Territory of South Australia. 



These birds live remarkably well in confinement, and for many years examples were kept 

 in the aviaries at the Botanic Gardens and the Zoological Gardens, Moore Park, Sydney. A 



* Trans. Roy. Soc. S.A., Vol. XXIt , p.p., 155-7 (1S98). 



t Free. r,inn. Soc. N. S. Wales, Vol. XXXVi., p. 305 (191 1) 



J Cat. Bds- Brit, Mus., Vol. XXI., p. 504 (1S93), 



