155 



Histriophaps hifitrionica, Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., 

 vol. XXI., p. 529 (1893). 



One adult female. Camp about five miles from the junction of 

 the Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers. 



[These birds were invariably found in large flocks in the 

 vicinity of the Fitzroy River, where they came to drink towards 

 evening, but as we traversed the open grassy plains south of the 

 St. George Range, great flocks arose from amongst the Flinders 

 grass, on the seeds of which they had been feeding. They are 

 extremely sociable in their habits, always feeding and drinking 

 in company, and wherever one nest is found many others may be 

 looked for in the same neighbourhood.] 



No. 49. LoPHoPHAPS FERRUGiNEA ( Rust-coloursd Bronze-wing). 



Lophophaps ferruginea, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., vol. TI. 

 p. 137 (1865); ic/., Bds. Austr., Suppl., pi. Q% (1869): Ramsay, 

 Proc. Linn. !Soc. KS.W., vol. II., 2nd. series, p. 171 (1887). 



Lophophaps plumifera, Salvad. {nee Gould), Cat. Bds. Brit. 

 Mus., vol. XXI, p. 533 (1893). 



An adult male and female, obtained near Mount Arthur, 

 slightly darker and richer in colour than specimens procured by 

 the late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower near Derby, in October, 1886. 

 The sexes are alike in plumage, but individual variation exists 

 in the depth of the white band on the throat ; in some specimens 

 it is crescentic in form, in others it extends in a V-shaped mark- 

 ing down the centre of the throat. Two eggs, taken by Mr. 

 Harris from a slight grass-lined depression in the ground, shel- 

 tered by a spinifex tussock, are swollen ellipses in shape, and of 

 a uniform pale-cream colour, the grain of the shell being very 

 fine and its surface slightly glossy. Length, (A) 0*94 x 0*77 inch, 

 (B) 0-9 X 0-77 inch. These are the only authenticated eggs of 

 this species that, as far as I am aware, have yet been found. 



Count Salvadori has described this Pigeon in the " Catalogue 

 of the ColumhcB in the British Museum," under the name of 

 Gould's older species, L. plumifera. The latter in his " Handbook 

 to the Birds of Australia" states that " L. ferruginea differs from 

 L. plumifera . . in the absence of the broad ivhite pectoral 

 band so conspicuous in the latter." In the " Aves of the Horn 

 Expedition " I pointed out the difference between Gould's and 

 Count Salvadori's descriptions of L. plumifera, but, judging from 

 the measurements only, I there concurred that the bird described 

 by Count Salvadori was similar to the one from which Gould had 

 taken his original description of L. jylumifera. Since the publica- 

 tion of the Report of the Horn Expedition, however, the Aus- 

 tralian Museum has been enriched by the addition of the well- 

 known Dobroyde Collection, which contains a fine series of the 



