RASORES. 145 



brown, the remainder black, largely tipped with white ; irides 

 light ash-grey ; bill and orbits bright greyish blue, becoming 

 much paler before and behind the eye ; frontal scales of the 

 tarsi and feet dark greenish grey ; remainder of the legs and 

 feet reddish flesh-colour. 



Total length 8} inches; billf ; wing 4; tail 4f ; tarsi f. 



Sp. 473. GEOPELIA PLACIDA, Gould. 



Placid Dove. 



Geophelia placida, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. i. Introd. 

 p. Ixxi. 



This bird is abundantly and equally distributed over all 

 parts of the Cobourg Peninsula and the neighbouring islands ; 

 its favourite haunts being moist meadows or the grassy banks 

 of small streams, and grass-seeds its principal food. It is 

 usually met with in flocks of from twenty to fifty in number, 

 which, when disturbed, generally fly off to the nearest tree ; 

 on alighting they jerk the tail very erect, and utter their 

 slowly-repeated and monotonous double note ; at other times 

 they coo very faintly, after the manner of the other members 

 of the family. 



The Placid Ground-Dove is nearly one-third less than the 

 G. tranquilla, but is so precisely the same in colouring that a 

 description of it is quite unnecessary. 



It may not be out of place to mention that many other 

 species of this form of little Ground-Doves occur in the islands 

 immediately to the northward of Australia, in Java, Sumatra, 

 and the Malayan Peninsula ; where they form a considerable 

 article of commerce, many of them being caged and sent to 

 Singapore, and, according to Mr. Jerdon, to the bazaars at 

 Calcutta; examples are also frequently brought to England. 

 No bird being more tranquil in confinement, it is everywhere 

 a favourite. 



VOL. II. L 



