Loriioi'HAi's. 143 



favourite position for this species is to lie down on one side and lift the win;,' into the air, and 

 bask in the sun; here it would remain heedless of passers by for about an half an hour at a time. 



In the old collection of the Australian Museum is a mounted specimen of Lopln'pliitps 

 plniuifcid, which TV. E. P. Ramsay informed me was presented to the Trustees by Mr. |ohn 

 Murphy, one of the members of Dr. Leichhardt's Overland Expedition, and who obtained it durinj,' 

 the journey from Moreton Bay and Port Essington. i\Ir. Murphy, then a lad ofsi.xteen, was 

 with Gilbert at the time he treacherously met his death at the hands of the natives, and presumedly 

 this is tlie historic specimen referred to by Gilbert in his journal. There is no record in Dr. 

 I^eichhardt's work of any other specimen of L. phnnifcra being obtained, except two shot by 

 Bruwn the day before Gilbert secured his specimen, " but they were too much mutilated to make 

 good specimens." The example referred to is in the unmistakable livery of youth, and agrees 

 more closely with Gould's original figure of this species in his folio edition of the " Birds of 

 Australia,"' tlian it does with the bird he figures in his '• Supplement " under the name of 

 Loplhflhips li-ucoc;asfi'i'. There are similar immature specimens in this collection obtained by the 

 late Captain E. Armit at Normanton. ()ne of the handsomest of the adult mounted specimens 

 in the collection is one of a pair that was presented by j\lr. F. C. Jansen. They were trapped 

 with a number of others he had recei\ed in Sydney, some distance inland from Port Darwin, in 

 the Northern Territory of South .Australia. Other specimens in the collection previously 

 kept in captivity, some of them for a number of years, were received from the Council of the 

 Zoological Society of New South Wales and Mr. W. J. Banks, formerly of Ashfield, near 

 Sydney. 



Dr. E.G. Stirling, Director of the South Australian Museum, .\delaide, sent me the following 

 note under date 13th March, igi i :— " fnquiring through Mr. T. Gill, Under Treasurer, in 

 leply to yours relative to the location of Machrihanish Station, I have this day received the 

 following from the Lands Office of tiiis State :— ' Machrihanish Station is not known m the 

 Survey or Land Office, Adelaide, but Mr. A. L. Galbraith, who sent the Pigeon Loplhfliaps 

 Ic-iuogdstfi' to England, took up country near Blanchewater, close to Lake Callabonna (formerly 

 Lake Mulligan) in 1864, also another block between Lakes Frome and Eyre." 



Dr. W. Macgillivray, of Broken Dill, S nith-western New South Wales, has forwarded me 

 the following notes :--" Lopliopliaps pliiiiiiUni is not found north of Cloncurry, and Mr. McLennan's 

 notes were mostly made to the north. He took one run south to Mount Elliott, in hilly country, 

 but did not see any. On enquiring abuit them he was told they were getting very scarce. I 

 remember my brother, the late Mr. A. S. Macgillivray, telling me these birds were so tame they 

 would not move out of one's way, and could easily be cau-ht or killed with a stockwhip. 

 It is found south and west of Cloncurry, no further east or north, and in hilly, sandy and 

 spinifex country. They are common on Nappa Merrie Station, where Bourke and Wills' depot 

 and graves are, on Cooper River, South Australia; that is aliout theii southern limit; they 

 are also common along the Georgina and Herbert Rivers, near tlie western border, where 

 there are rocky or sandy hills, and may often be seen basking on a rock on a hot sunny day 

 when one could hardly bear one's hand on the rock." 



Mr. Percy Peir sent me the following notes from Campsie, near Sydney :— " In iqo6 I had 

 six pairs of Lophophaps plimnfera sent me frotn Port Darwin, coming originally from the Katherine 

 River in the Northern Territory of South Australia, not one bird dying on the journey. They 

 are very hardy, but I was unsuccessful in the attempt to breed them, as the male bird is very 

 spiteful, and although eggs were laid he would give the hen no peace, driving her about from 

 morn till night. Pairs can only be kept together with moderate success, for if in greater numbers 

 they fight amongst themselves. They do not perch as other Pigeons, but if supplied with small 

 pieces of stone— stepping stones as it were— they are (juickly availed of, and especially by the 



