240 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



tail-coverts, tail and wings ; primary-coverts blackish with buff tips ; primary- 

 quills sandy-buff at the base, becoming brown or vermiculated with brown towards 

 the ends, the secondaries similar but more broadly tipped with buff ; a patch on 

 the fore-neck and nuchal collar bright chestnut ; an entire collar of black and white 

 feathers ; sides of the face and upper throat white, minutely dotted with black, 

 former more or less washed with sandy -rufous ; chin and middle of abdomen white, 

 breast and sides of body buff, barred or spotted with black like the under tail -co verts ; 

 under wing-coverts white, washed with buff and more or less dotted with black ; 

 under-surface of quills brown, dusted with sandy -rufous ; bill yellow, shading 

 into black at the point ; iris straw-yellow ; feet greenish-yellow. Total length 

 170 mm. ; culmen 16, wing 100, tail 30, tarsus 24. 



Adult male. Distinguished from the female by the chestnut patch on the breast 

 as well as the nuchal band being very much paler. The collar is only indicated by 

 buff and white, instead of black and white. Total length 152 mm. ; culmen 13, 

 wing 83, tail 30, tarsus 24. 



Immature male. Differs from the adult in the absence of the chestnut patch on 

 the breast. 



Nestling. Appears to be undescribed. 



Nest. Constructed of dried grasses, and is placed in a slight depression in 

 the ground underneath the shelter of some convenient shrub or tuft of grass. 



Eggs. Four in number for a sitting ; in shape pyriform ; of a stone-white 

 ground-colour, thickly freckled and blotched, and a few smudges here and there of 

 different shades of umber-brown and slaty-grey, a few nearly obsolete blotches of 

 the latter colour appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. Dimensions 

 35 mm. by 25. 



Breeding -season. September to February. 



Distribution and forms. South-eastern Central Australia only, and consequently 

 no subspecies are at present admitted. 



ORDER COLUMB^E. 



This order includes the Pigeons and the extinct Dodo and allied forms, the 

 latter being separated with subordinal rank only as merely degenerate flightless forms, 

 but this may be wrong as no recent investigator has studied the facts from recent 

 knowledge. The general features of Pigeons are not easily diagnosed, though the 

 birds themselves can never be confused : the bill with its generally pronounced 

 dertrum suggests that of a Plover, while the operculate nostrils, the operculum swollen, 

 j ust as strongly recall those of the Galline birds . In some cases the legs are absolutely 

 Galline even to detail, while in others the legs are Parrot-like in appearance. The 

 species are numerous and world wide in distribution, and are remarkable as laying 

 two white eggs, which generally hatch out a male and female, hence the expression 

 " pigeon pair." Internal features are very variable, and when Garrod attempted to 

 classify them by these means he made an extraordinary muddle. By means of 

 superficial features, however, a fairly satisfactory scheme can be prepared. Many 

 families will be admitted, and then it will be seen that the species have diverged in 

 different directions from several sources. Thus the Australian Ground-Doves, here 

 united with the Turtle-Doves, may represent one family, the peculiar genus Ocyphaps 

 another, and Lopholaimus a third. At present we are not so dividing the species, 

 but we anticipate fuller knowledge will necessitate such action. 



Osteologically, the skull shows a schizognathous palate with schizorhinal nostrils, 

 and with basipterygoid processes in the Columbiformes, which are absent in the 

 Raphiformes. Some of the Columbiformes, however, show the nasals pseudo-holo- 

 rhinal ; the lachrymal fuses with the ectethmoid and forms a large bone, in which 

 sometimes a foramen is formed. There is generally a supraoccipital foramen and 



