IIASOIIES. 115 



at which I could succeed in procuring specimens was the 

 evening, when it resorts to the mangroves on the small islands 

 lying off the shore, or to the dense thickets a short dis- 

 tance inland ; at this time it may be seen arriving in small 

 flocks of from ten to fifteen to roost for the night. Its note, 

 like that of the other pigeons, is a coo, but at times, particu- 

 larly when it has paired, it is much louder and deeper than 

 that of any other species I ever heard. 



" It pairs and commences breeding immediately after its 

 arrival in November, and I have obtained eggs as late as the 

 middle of January. The nest is formed of a few sticks laid 

 across one another in opposite directions, and is so sHght a 

 structure that the eggs may usually be seen through the inter- 

 stices from beneath, and it is so flat that it appears wonderful 

 how the eggs remain upon it when the branch is waving 

 about in the wind ; it is usually built on the horizontal 

 branch of a mangrove, and it would seem that it prefers for 

 this purpose a branch overhanging water. That it never lays 

 more than one egg appears to me without a doubt, for upon 

 visiting Table Head River on the eastern side of the harbour 

 of Port Essington I found no less than twenty nests, all of 

 which contained either a single egg or a single young bird." 

 Mr. Elsey found it on the Victoria River ; and out of Australia 

 it has been met with in the Aru Islands, whence Mr. Wallace 

 brought specimens, 



Mr, G. R. Gray states that this bird, which I had con- 

 sidered to be identical with C. luctuosa of Temminck, " is 

 distinguished by the feathers of the thighs and under tail- 

 coverts being spotted near the margins and the outer tail- 

 feathers, with the greater part of the outer web and tip black, 

 while in C. luctuosa the feathers of the thighs and under tail- 

 coverts end in deep black, and the outer tail-feathers in white 

 throughout, except on the outer web nearest the base." 



The whole of the plumage bufiy white, with the exception of 

 the primaries, secondaries and greater wing-coverts, which are 



I 2 



