LITTLE GREEN PIGEON. 249 



tail-feathers broad, darker towards ends, the outer similar to those of adult ; chin 

 .and throat whitish, breast brownish, feathers barred with fawnish-white, lower- 

 breast more obsoletely barred, abdomen and flanks dirty ; inner wing-lining 

 brownish, the feathers on the edge with fawn tips. 



Nest. A small, frail structure, usually composed of dry grass, including the 

 flowering portions, and placed in the fork of a low or bushy tree. 



Eggs. Clutch, two ; roundish in shape ; texture of shell fine ; surface gloesy ; 

 pure white. Dimensions 19 mm. by 15. 



Breeding-season. Practically all the year. May to September. January to 

 March. 



Incubation-period. (In captivity) twelve days. 



Distribution and forms. Australia only. The form from the interior of the 

 North-west of Australia has been named S. c. mungi by Mathews, on account of its 

 paler coloration, both above and below, and it is probable that this form occurs 

 throughout Central Australia, the typical form being named from Sydney, New 

 South Wales. 



Genus CHALCOPHAPS. 



Chalcophaps Gould, Birds Austr., pt. xm., Dec. 1st, 1843 (Vol. V., pi. 62). Type (by mono- 

 typy) : Columba chrysochlora Wagler. 



Monornis Hodgson, in Gray's Zool. Miscell., p. 85, June 29th, 1844. Type: Monornis 

 perpulchra 1 Nomen nudum. 



Medium Ground -Doves with slender bills, long wings, short rounded tail and 

 short legs and feet. The bill is comparatively long and slender, the culmen ridge 

 flattened, the dertrum, descending and rather strongly decurved but not much 

 swollen ; the nostrils linear and the membranous operculum a little swollen ; the 

 rami long and sensibly grooved, the gonys very short, a little angulated and ascending, 

 the interramal space narrow and half -feathered, anteriorly showing a naked skin 

 space. The wing is rounded, the secondaries long, the primaries very little scalloped, 

 the outer one slightly on the inner web ; the outer primary is long, equal to the 

 fourth, the second and third a little longer, subequal and longest. The tail is 

 composed of twelve broad feathers with rounded ends, and only a little rounded in 

 shape and about three-fifths the length of the wing. The tarsus is short and stout, 

 a little longer than the culmen, and unfeathered, shows a little reticulation only 

 faintly on the back and only a few broad scutes on the lower portion in the front. 

 The toes are comparatively short and stout, the middle toe longest, the inner 

 and outer a little less and subequal and the hind-toe notably shorter, though still 

 long and straight, the claws short and little curved. 



Coloration : head, neck and chest vinous-brown paler below, abdomen paler 

 vinous, wing-coverts and back bronze-green, primaries and tail reddish-brown. 



169. Chalcophaps chrysochlora. LITTLE GREEN PIGEON. 



Gould, Vol. V., pi. 62 (pt. xm.), Dec. 1st, 1843. Mathews, Vol. I., pt. 3, pi. 34, April 29th, 

 1911. 



Columba chrysochlora Wagler, Syst. Av., Columba, sp. 79, p. (256), (before Oct.) 1827 : 



" Ceylon, Java, etc.," error = New South Wales (Gosford). 



Chalcophaps longirostris Gould, Birds Austr., Introd., 8vo ed., p. 79, Aug. 1st, 1848 : Port 



Essington, Northern Territory. 



Chalcophaps occidentals North, Viet. Naturalist, Vol. XXIV., No. 8, p. 135, Dec. 1907 : 



Port Keats, Northern Territory. 



Chalcophaps chrysochlora rogersi Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 187, Jan. 31st, 1912 : 



Cairns, Queensland. 



Chalcophaps chrysochlora Jcempi Mathews, ib. : Cape York, North Queensland. 



Chalcophaps chrysochlora melvillensis Zietz, South Austr. Ornith., Vol. I., pt. I., p. 12, Jan. 



1914 : Melville Island, Northern Territory. 



-DISTRIBUTION. Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria. 



