142 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Genus ERYTHRAUCH^NA, Bonaparte. 



Few birds are more delicate or elegant in form than the 

 one to which the above generic appellation has been given, 

 and which is the only species known to inhabit Australia. 



Sp. 471. ERYTHRAUCH^.NA HUMERALIS. 



Barred-shouldered Dove. 



Columha humeralis, Temru. PI. Col. 191. 



enjthrauchen, Wagl. Syst. Av., Columba, sp. 98. 



Erythrauchcena humeralis, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., torn. ii. p. 93. 



GeopeUa humeralis, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. v. pi. 72. 



There are reasons for believing that the Eri/thanchcena Uume- 

 r«/25 inhabits the whole of the vast interior of Australia as well 

 as the neighbourhood of the coasts of its northern and eastern 

 portions. In New South Wales it is sparingly dispersed over 

 the Liverpool Plains, where some of the specimens I possess 

 were obtained. As the structure of its legs would indicate, 

 it passes much of its time on the ground, feeding on the seeds 

 of various kinds of grasses and leguminous plants. Not only 

 is it one of the most elegant of the Dove tribe inhabiting 

 Australia, but it is also one of the most tame and docile, if I 

 may judge from the few I observed on the heated plains of 

 New South Wales : their confidence was such that they some- 

 times perched within two yards of the spot where I was 

 sitting ; extreme thirst and a scanty supply of water may, how- 

 ever, have rendered them more tame or bold than they 

 otherwise would have been, 



Gilbert states that at Port Essington "this Dove is ex- 

 tremely abundant, inhabiting thickets, swampy grounds, and 

 the banks of running streams. It mostly feeds on the seeds 

 of various kinds of grasses, but when the country becomes 

 burnt it finds an abundant supply of berries in the thickets. 



