560 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



never drinks water, but this I soon found to be incorrect. 

 They invariably feed in the light, but will not take food if 

 anyone be present. They run with great rapidity, elongating 

 the body and depressing the head, and in the action of running 

 resemble Grouse." 



Another living Biduncidus having arrived in Sydney, Dr. 

 Bennett, with his wonted liberality, purchased it at a very 

 high price, and sent it to London, as a present to the Zoolo- 

 logical Society, in charge of Mr. Broughton, the steward of the 

 * La Hogue,' whose experience in the management of birds 

 enabled him to bring it home in safety, and it lived for some 

 months in the Society's Gardens, in the Regent's Park, an 

 object of interest to all scientific ornithologists; its skin is 

 now in the National collection at the British Museum, and its 

 body will afford Mr. Parker the opportunity of preparing and 

 publishing a valuable memoir on its osteology. Referring 

 to this specimen. Dr. Bennett states that the whole of the 

 time it was in his " possession it never became domesticated, 

 nor evinced the slightest attachment to the lady who daily 

 fed it ; it was the same to her as to strangers, and I do not 

 consider the Biduncidus a bird which will be readily reconciled 

 to captivity. For some time it would be comparatively tame, 

 and then, without any apparent cause to account for the 

 change, become very wild." 



Lores and a small patch on each side of the throat bare and 

 apparently red ; head, neck, breast, and belly glossy greenish 

 black ; feathers of the upper part of the back black, wdth a 

 crescent-shaped mark of glossy green at the tip of each 

 feather; back, wings, tail, and under tail-coverts rich deep 

 chestnut-red ; primaries and secondaries greyish black ; iridcs 

 dark reddish brown ; orbits flesh-colour ; bill orange, red at 

 the base, the remainder yellowish ; tarsi and feet bright 

 orange-red. 



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