BRONZE-WINGED PIGEONS. 



285 



cupreous crimson ; flights smoky-brown, their inner webs 

 cinnamon towards the base ; three outer tail-feathers 

 more or less grey at the base and with a subterminal 

 black 'belt, the tips coffee-brown like the rest of the 

 upper parts ; feet dull lake-red ; bill dull slate-colour, 

 dull lake-red at base; iris brown. Female rather 

 smaller, but stouter; the chin sordid white, the throat 

 slightly tinged with cinnamon and opaline, not blue ; 

 and the remainder of the under parts distinctly paler 

 than in the male. The young bird has (black bars on 

 some of the scapulars, wing-coverts, and secondaries. 

 Hab., West Africa, from the Gold Coast to the Gaboon. 

 Count Salvadori divides this into two species, regard- 

 ing the .bird with the coppery-lake spots and red base 

 to bill as distinct from C. puella, but Captain Shelley 

 says that they are not specifically distinct. The birds 

 usually imported certainly belong to the latter form, and 

 shoula, strictly speaking be called Brehmer's Dove 

 (Calopelia brehmeri). Count Salvadori describes the 

 spots as golden coppery ; but there is nothing golden 

 about them, the colour being metallic lake-red, with a 

 slight glint of copper in certain lights. It is evident 

 that Dr. Sharpe agrees with Count Salvadori in regard- 

 ing C. brehmeri as distinct, for he records it as one of 

 the interesting species obtained by Mr. G. L. Bates on 

 the Rio Benito, French Congo (cf. The Ibis, 1900, 

 p. 534). In 1904, however, in an article on " Birds 

 from Efulen in Cameroon," Dr. Sharpe says: "It is 

 interesting to find C. puella and C. brehmeri inhabiting 

 the same country, and I incline to the idea that the 

 latter may be the young of the former." This is cer- 

 tainly not the case, however. 



Russ asserts that in West Africa this Dove lives in 

 the bush, and that is the only note relating to its wild 

 life which I have discovered. Its song is louder than 

 that of the Emerald Dove, but otherwise very similar. 

 When showing .off to the hen neither this, nor any of 

 the allied African Bronze-wing Doves, raises the wings 

 over the back like the Asiatic and Australian Bronze- 

 winers. Why Salvadori separated the African forms, 

 putting the genus Chalcophaps, with its booming coo, 

 between Chalcopelia and Calopelia, I am unable to 

 guess. 



The London Zoological Society first received an 

 example of this Dove (but whether of the variety with 

 green or lake-red spots is not clear) in 1870; in- 1877 

 four more were purchased, all males. In 1884 the 

 species reached the Amsterdam Gardens, and Cross, of 

 Liverpool, received specimens, two of which he sent to 

 Dr. Russ. In 1888 Miss Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, ex- 

 hibited two specimens at the exhibition of the " Ornis " 

 Society. A pair purchased by the London Zoological 

 Society in 1884 probably came from Cross' consign- 

 ment; others were presented in later years. In 1905 

 Hamlyn imported nearly a dozen examples, from which 

 I .purchased the first selected pair, Mr. Housden pur- 

 chased a second pair, and I believe Mr. Seth-Smith 

 secured the others. Most of these Dov.es died soon after 

 their importation. 



I purchased my pair on September 6. The female was 

 taken ill early in November, but got better by the 

 23rd, then she had a relapse and died on the last day 

 of the year. The male seemed rather pleased than 

 otherwise when his wife died, and, for the first time, 

 cooed and quivered his wings vigorously. I fancy that 

 this qi ivering of the wings is intended to display the 

 scintillating metallic spots to advantage. For some time 

 this handsome bird paid court to the much smaller 

 female Emerald Dove, and possibly her death in June. 

 1908, may have affected his health more than that of 



his natural mate, since he died on November 28 of the 

 same year in nothing like such good plumage as he 

 had previously exhibited. On the other hand, it is far 

 more probable that this is the most delicate, as it is the 

 most beautiful, of the African Bronze-wings, and that 

 the chilliness of our climate at the beginning of winter 

 has a disastrous effect unless the individual happens at 

 the time to be in perfect health. 



Mr. Seth-Smith, who eventually succeeded in estab- 

 lishing a healthy pair for a summer in his outdoor 

 aviaries, perhaps had as good a chance of breeding this 

 Dove as anybody ; but, so far, I believe that no one- 

 has succeeded either here or on the Continent. 



The Maiden Dove is in all respects charming in its 

 colouring, its peaceable disposition, and its musical, 

 though somewhat monotonous, notes. In an aviary it 

 spends most of its time on a branch, like the other 

 African Bronze-wings, chiefly descending to the ground 

 for food or drink. 



AUSTRALIAN GREEN-WINGED DOVE (Chalcophaps 

 chrysochlora). 



HE prevailing colour of the 

 adult male is rich vinous, with 

 a chocolate sub-tint, the nape 

 slightly more purplish, the 

 back and wings emerald green, 

 with the bend of the wing 

 snow-white ; lower back dark, 

 with two grey bars ; outer tail 

 feathers grey ; feet dull crim- 

 son; bill bright red, with 

 yellower cere ; iris brown. 



The female is slightly duller 

 than the male, more chocolate 

 AUSTRALIAN GREEN-WINGED in tint ; the patch at bend of 

 wing greyish or almost absent ; 

 tail above chestnut brown, the 



lateral feathers with a black subterminal belt ; the outer 

 feathers as in the male. In the young the outer webs- 

 of the flights are washed with chestnut. Hab., the- 

 Timor group, Moluccas, Papua, New Hebrides, New- 

 Caledonia., Australia, and Lord Howe's Island. 



Gould savis of this species ("Handbook," Vol. II.,. 

 pp. 118, 119) : " The brushy districts are the localities 

 peculiarly adapted to it, and these, I believe, it never 

 leaves for the more open parts of the country ; hence- 

 it is but little known to, and seldom seen by, the colo- 

 nists, a circumstance the more to be regretted, as the- 

 beauty and brilliancy of its plumage and the neatness of 

 its form render it one of the prettiest of the Australian 

 birds. When flushed, it flies very quickly through 

 the scrub, but to no great distance, and readily eludes 

 pursuit by pitching suddenly to the ground, and re- 

 maining so quiet that it can. rarely be discovered." 



Mr. A. J. Campbell says (" Nests and Eggs of Aus- 

 tralian Birds," p. 679) : "I first made its acquaintance 

 in Northern Queensland (1885), where it is fairly nume- 

 rous, and where we bagged several beautiful pairs. 

 Again I met it in the 'Big .Scrub,' New South Wales. 

 Here it was frequently noticed flying quickly and low 

 through the under-scrub. Being of terrestrial habits, it 

 lives on fallen seeds and fruits." "Its call is a melancholy 

 bellowing sound, two or three times repeated." He thus 

 describes the nidification : ''Nest. A frail, flat struc- 

 ture of twigs, placed in a low tree. Eggs. Clutch, two ; 

 elliptical in shape ; texture of shell fine, except on the 

 smaller end, which is slightly granular ; surface glossy ; 

 colour, light creamy white, but darker in tone than 

 that of Ptilopus sitperbus. Dimensions in inches of 



