RASORES. 147 



nearest tree, and tliere remains motionless among the branches. 

 I not unfrequently observed it close to the open doors of the 

 ]iuts of the stock-keepers of the interior, who, from its being 

 so constantly before them, regard it with little interest. 



The nest is a frail but beautiful structure, formed of the 

 stalks of a few flowering grasses, crossed and interwoven after 

 the manner of the other Doves. One sent me from AVestern 

 Australia is " composed," says Gilbert, " of a small species of 

 knotted everlasting-like plant {Coniposita), and was placed on 

 the overhanging grasses of the Xanthorrhoea. During my 

 first visit to this part of the country only two situations were 

 known as places of resort for this species, and I did not meet 

 with more than five or six examples ; since that period it has 

 become extremely abundant, and now a pair or two may 

 occasionally be seen about most of the settlers' houses on the 

 Avon, becoming apparently very tame and familiarized to man. 

 It utters a rather singular note, which at times very much 

 resembles the distant crowing of a cock. The term Men-na- 

 hrun-ka is applied to it by the natives from a traditionary idea 

 that the bird originally introduced the Men-na, a kind of 

 gum which exudes from a species of Acacia, and which is one 

 of the favourite articles of food of the natives." 



The eggs are white and two in number, eleven-sixteenths 

 of an inch long by seven-sixteenths broad. 



The sexes, although bearing a general resemblance to each 

 other, may be readily distinguished by the smaller size of the 

 female, by the browner hue of her wing-feathers, and by the 

 spotting of her upper surface not being so numerous or so 

 regular as in the male. 



The male has the head, neck, and breast delicate grey, 

 passing into white on the abdomen and under tail-coverts; 

 back and scapularies cinnamon-brown; wing-coverts dark 

 grey ; each feather of the wing-coverts and scapularies with 

 two spots, one on the edge of either web near the tip, of 

 white encircled with black; spurious wing and primaries 



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