THE SCRUB PIGEON. 95 



forest glade ; and here, in pigeon-shooting by a water- 

 hole, as soon as ever the evening star shows, you may 

 go home. The most sporting way of killing them is as 

 they rise from the heather, or the ground among honey- 

 suckle scrub, when they go away as straight and as sharp 

 as any of "Barber's best blue rocks." A great country 

 for pigeons is about the Surney, on the coast, forty miles 

 from Melbourne; and another famous place is on the 

 Gipp's-land road, below Dandenong. But they are to 

 be met with in larger or smaller quantities all over the 

 bush. As the small settlers begin to take up the forest 

 land, the pigeons disappear ; for, although I have heard 

 of them in the corn-fields, their principal food is certainly 

 seeds and berries ; and, although not a very shy bird 

 the wild bush, the pigeon likes quiet and secluded places 

 to breed in. Pigeons will fetch 2s. 6d. per couple 

 throughout the year, and they are well worth it. 



The Scrub Pigeon is a smaller, and, I think, a hand- 

 somer bird than even a common bronze-wing. It is 

 much rarer, generally found singly or in pairs, very 

 seldom in small flocks, except late in the season ; the 

 colour is a uniform dark cinnamon-brown, the forehead 

 reddish, and the wing-speculum, although not so large 

 as in the common bird, is far deeper and more brilliant. 

 It is very partial to particular localities, and, like the 

 woodcock at home, there are certain places where you 

 will always find a scrub pigeon. It is a shy, solitary 

 bird, frequenting the thickest scrub, and seems partial to 

 tea-tree by the side of water. They almost always rise 



