^^a CHARADRIIFORMES chap. 



and grey under parts ; the head is finely varied with jet-black and 

 pure white, the secondaries shew patches of metallic - purple, 

 and the primaries have white tips and partly rufous inner webs. 

 The female is much duller. It is essentially a Ground-Pigeon, 

 and breeds on the bare soil of the plains ; but the flight is 

 much stronger than might be expected, as is also the case with 

 Geophaps. Pluips chalcoptera and P. clegans, of Australia and 

 Tasmania, in their mode of life resemble the preceding, though 

 the latter species is the more terrestrial, while both usually build in 

 low trees or bushes. P. dial copter a, the Common Bronze-wing, 

 is extremely handsome, the greyish-brown upper surface being- 

 relieved by a purple band on the crown and most brilliant bronze 

 and green spots upon the wing ; the breast is pinkish, the 

 throat white, and the forehead white with a wash of yellow. 

 The inner webs of the remiges are partly rufous. P. elegans, the 

 Brush Bronze-wing, is a shorter-winged bird, with chestnut 

 throat and grey breast. Henicophaps cdhifrons of New Guinea 

 and the adjacent western islands has the forehead whitish, the 

 neck and under parts rich reddish-purple, the back blue-black, the 

 wings glossed with golden-green and bronze, and their coverts 

 margined with chestnut. The beak is longer and stouter than 

 in the allied forms, and the bird is partly arboreal. Ccdop)elicc 

 p'liella of West Africa is a fine cinnamon-coloured bird, with 

 blue head and iridescent green spots on the wings. Of Chalco- 

 2yhaps, ranging from India, Burma, and South China, through the 

 islands to Australia and the New Hebrides, Count Salvadori makes 

 two divisions, though the species are little more than local races. 

 Of the first of these, with golden-green mid-back and scapulars, 

 C. indica, the Emerald Dove or Beetle-wing, may be taken as 

 typical ; the head is blue with white forehead and sides, the 

 upper back is purplish, the wing-coverts golden-green, the lower 

 back bronzy with two grey bars, the rump nearly black, and the 

 under parts purplish-pink. The female is brown and somewhat 

 redder below, with grey forehead. This species covers nearly 

 the whole range of the genus, but only stretches eastward to 

 Geelvink Bay in New Guinea. C. chrysochlord reaches from 

 Timor to the New Hebrides ; C. sanghirensis occurs in Great 

 Sanghir Island ; C. nat(dis in Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. 

 C. stephani, of Celebes and Papuasia, and C. mortoni, of the Solomon 

 Islands, constitute the second division, wliere the mid-back and 



