148 PERISTERID^,. 



egK out and pull the nest to pieces. I have seen their nests from ei;;hteen inches to thirty feet 

 from the f,'round." 



Mr. Robt. Grant has handed me the following note : — " The Crested Bronze-wing (Ocyphaps 

 lop/ioks) is very numerous in almost every part of the interior of New South Wales I have 

 visited. When at Buckiinguy Station, near Nyngan, in company with Mr. S. I\'obinson, we 

 found it breeding, the nest being a frad structure formed of stick's and twigs, eight or ten 

 feet from the ground. Frequently the nests were built in saplings, with a vine or mistletoe 

 growing on them ; some of the nests were dillicult to see, as they were placed in the thickest 

 foliage. Two eggs are laid ior a sitting." 



From Marrickville, near Sydney, Mr. Percy Peir wrote : — " The Crested I-Jronze-wing 

 (Oi-yplmps li'photcs) is the easiest of all the Australian Pigeons to breed, and pairs 1 have had 

 bred right throughout the year, nests of young often appearing in the depth of winter." 



P'rom Melbourne, Mctoria, Mr. G. A. Keartland wrote me: — "The Crested Bronze-wing 

 (( )ivl>!inps Icphnles) possess a peculiar interest for the explorer or traveller in the interior, from the 

 fact that they are seldom seen above a mile or two from water, and their mode of llight makes them 

 comparatively easy to follow. They usually travel in Hocks of from a dozen to iifty. One bird 

 may be seen to perch on a tree, and in a minute or so another arrives from the same direction. 

 This is repeated until the last of the flock has arrived, when the leading bird starts off again to 

 another tree, perhaps two hundred yards away, and the same tactics are repeated until water is 

 reached. After drinking they remain in the vicinity of the water for an hour or two. When 

 they lly they make a peculiar noise with their wings, which has earned for them the name of 

 ' wire wing' in some parts of the interior. When breeding in the \icinity of permanent water, 

 I always found one bird at the nest whilst its mate gathered food Irom the ground in the 

 neighborhood, but at isolated waters I have often killed birds out of a large flock which, when 

 opened, were found to contain eggs with perfect shells, and which would ha\'e been laid in a few 

 hours. Their nest is a frail structure, placed on the fork of a horizontal branch, generally about 

 nine feet from the ground." 



From Western Australia Mr. 'I'om Carter writes :--" When 1 was on the Lower Gascoyne 

 River in 18S7, numbers of the Crested Bronze-wing (Ocvphaps lopliotcs) used to come to drink at 

 the water troughs used by the sheep, the season being a dry one. Either stocking the country 

 has driven them away, or they have decreased in numbers, as none ha\e since been observed by 

 me." 



The nest is a frail structure of sticks and twigs, loosely placed together, and is usually 

 formed in the bushy fork of a horizontal branch ; it is a nearly flat structure, an average one 

 measuring eight inches in external diameter. Any suitable tree or bush is resorted to as a nesting 

 site, but generally the nest is from two or three to twenty feet from the ground. Mr. W. 

 Dickson, of " Wingadee," Coonamble, sent a photograph of a Crested l>ronze-wing sitting on 

 a nest with eggs in a Pepper-tree in his garden, on the hth Pvlay, 1^89, but it was too faint for 

 reproduction. 



The eggs are two in number for a sitting, elliptical in form, pure white, the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth and slightly lustrous. A set of two taken by Mr. K. L. Ramsay, on Wilgaroon 

 Station, Western New South Wales, on the 22nd September, i.SSq, measures: — Length (A) 

 i'29 X o'y inches; (B) 1-29 x 0^92 inches. A set of two taken by Mr. C. Watson, on the 

 igth November, 1892, on Merungle Station, near Booligal, measures: — Length (.V) r-i8 x 0-87 

 inches; (B) i'2 x 0-88 inches. Two sets of two each, taken near Coonamble, in October, 1909, 

 measure respectively: — Length (A) 1-2^ x 0-9 inches; (B) f25 x o'88 inches; (C) f3 x 0^92 

 inches; (D) f29 x 0-92 inches. 



Y'oung birds assume the plumage of the adult liefore they leave the nest, even to the metallic 

 markings on the inner greater wing-coverts and secondaries. The feathers on the under parts 



