BRONZE-WINGED PIGEONS. 



289 



YOUNG BRONZE-AVINGED PIGEONS. 



numerous specimens have been added to the collection 

 by presentation, exchange, deposit, and repeated breed- 

 ing. On May 1, 1907, I and other members of the 

 Avicultural Society accompanied the Editor of the 

 Society's Magazine to the Southern Pheasantry of the 

 Zoological Society's Gardens to witness the liberation 

 of a number of foreign Doves with a view to their 

 acclimatisation in Regent's Park. On that day eleven 

 Crested Pigeons, four Bronze-wings, three Half- collared 

 Turtle-Doves, four Necklaced and one Senegal Dove 

 were set free, and others were liberated ten days later ; 

 so far as I have heard, there is no evidence that the 

 Bronze-wings nested at liberty, though the Crested 

 Pigeons and some of the Doves did ; indeed, I saw one 

 or two nests myself later on. Some of the birds made 

 their way to the Botanical Gardens. 



BRUSH BRONZE-WINGED PIGEON (Phaps elegans). 



Hind neck and upper back chestnut ; scapulars, lower 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts olivaceous-grey ; 

 upper wing-coverts also olivaceous-grey, but the smaller 

 and outer ones tinged with chestnut, the innermost 

 median and greater coverts metallic green on outer webs 

 and broadly tipped with grey ; the metallic patches on 

 the median coverts shot with copper and the innermost 

 of those on the greater coverts with steel blue ; flights 

 brown, cinnamon at base of inner webs ; the primaries 

 with the base of outer webs edged with the same colour ; 

 central tail-feathers olivaceous-grey, the next two pairs 

 brownish-chestnut towards the base, the remaining pairs 

 grey ; all the lateral tail-feathers with a subterminal 

 blackish band and greyish-brown tips ; forehead ochre- 

 yellow ; crown and back of head grey ; a broad chestnut 

 stripe from back of eye round back of head ; a black 

 loral line ; upper cheeks and upper ear-coverts whitish ; 

 lower cheeks and under surface of body olivaceous-grey, 

 becoming greyish-brown on tibial feathers and vent ; a 

 triangular chestnut spot on the throat ; under wing- 

 coverts cinnamon ; feet .bright lake-red ; irides dark 

 brown. Female duller throughout and with the fore- 

 head much less buff ; decidedly paler than in the male. 



Gould says of this bird (" Handbook," Vol. II., pp. 125, 



126) : " It affects the most scrulbby localities, giviing 

 preference to such as are low and swampy ; and I haw 

 never seen it perch on the branches of trees. 

 When flushed it rises very quickly, with a loud 

 burring noise similar to that made by the rising 

 of a Partridge. The shortness of its wings and 

 tail, and the extreme depth of its spectoral 

 muscle, render its appearance more plump and 

 round than that of the generality of Pigeons. It is> 

 a very difficult bird to shoot, from its inhabiting 

 the denser parts of the scrub, from which it is 

 not easily driven. It flies but little, rarely for 

 a greater distance than to cross a gully or top 

 a ridge before it again abruptly descends into 

 the scrub. 



" Its food consists of seeds and berries of 

 various kinds, particularly in Tasmania of a 

 plant there called Boobyaller. 



" I believe it never migrates, but merely re- 

 moves from one locality to another, as food may 

 be more or less abundant. 



"Its note, more lengthened than that of the 

 Common Bronze-wing, is a low and mournful 

 .strain, and is more often repeated towards the 

 close of the evening than at any other time." 



" In Western Australia it has been observed to 



breed sometimes on the ground, and in a fork of 



the Xanthorrhcea or grass tree; the nest being 



formed of a few small sticks, and the eggs, as usual, 



being white and two m number, fifteen lines long by 



eleven lines broad." 



Mr. D. Seth-Smith secured three examples of this 

 Pigeon from a London bird-dealer in January, 1904, 

 and a pair went to neat in his aviaries almost imme- 

 diately, the first egg being laiid ten days atfiter thedr 

 arrival ; one young one was baltehed in Feibruary, bult 

 was moit reared. The birds nested again, and two young 

 were nearly reared when the parents 'began to build a 

 third time, and neglected the nestlings, one of which 

 con&equenltly died, but the other was reared. The hen 

 was then paired up with the second cock in a suitable 

 outdoor aviary, and on April 26th the first eg.g was 

 laid, another being laiid the next day ; both young fleiw 

 on June 3rd. 



In an aviary this species roosts on trees quite as much 

 as the commoner Bronze-twing ; its usual nesting season 

 i from October to January in its own country. 

 Although a nice s-pecies to breed, and not frequently 

 imported, there is no great demand for the young birds. 

 The Brush Bronze-winged Pigeon reached .tlha 

 Amsterdam Zoological Gardens in 1857, the Londicni 

 Gardens dn 1881, and the Berlin Gardens in 1893. 



HARLEQUIN BRONZE-WINGED PIGEON (Histriophaps 

 histrionica) . 



Upper surface cinnamon brown ; the marginal wing- 

 coverts bluish-igirey ; edge of wing white ; bastard - c wdng, 

 primary coverts, and primaries grey tipped with whilte, 

 the Latter tinged with pale brown on outer webs and 

 with the basal part oif inner webs cinnamon ; inner 

 secondaries with a patch of metallic purple on outer ' 

 wefos ; the two last also with a white suibtermdnia.l spot ; 

 lateral tail -feathers bluish -igrey at base, becoming black 

 towards extremity, which is <wihiite ; forehead, a striipe 

 from back of eye encircling the ear-coverts, and a 

 gorget snow-white ; rest of head, throat, and ear-coverts 

 jet-black ; breast and abdomen bluish -grey ; under tail- 

 coverts grey at base, pale buff at tip ; under wing- 

 coverts bluish-grey ; ibdill foJack ; ;feet lilacine-red in front, 

 flesh-red behind ; irides dark brown ; naked orbital 

 skin purplish-black. Female without white on the fore- 



