NATIVE PHEASANT. Leipoa 



little property to the person who is fortunate enough to find it, as the bird will suffer her 

 nest to be robbed repeatedly, and will lay over and over again, thus affording a bountiful 

 supply of eggs to the discoverer. The colour of the eggs is white with a very slight 

 tinge of red. 



The Leipoa is an active bird, chiefly depending on its legs, like the pheasant of our 

 own country, and never seeking to escape by flight unless absolutely driven to such a course. 

 When startled, its usual plan is to take to its legs, and run off at full speed, threading the 

 bushes with great rapidity and being very likely to escape if the bush be thick, But if it 

 be surprised when the ground is tolerably open, it may be run down and captured without 

 much difficulty, as it possesses a stupid habit which was formerly attributed to the ostrich. 

 Looking naturally upon the bushes as its home, it makes at once for the nearest bush, 

 dashes into it, and there remains until the pursuer comes up and drags it from its fancied 

 refuge. 



The head of the Leipoa is decorated with a well-defined crest, which, like the remainder 

 of the head, is blackish brown. The neck and shoulders are dark ashen grey, and the 

 front of the neck and the upper part of the breast are covered with long black pointed 

 feathers, each having a white stripe along its centre. The primary feathers of the wings 

 are dark brown, having some sharply toothed lines near the tip, and the feathers of the 

 back and remainder of the wings are marked near their extremities with three bands of 

 greyish white, brown, and black, forming a series of "eyes" upon the feathers. The under 

 surface is buff, the flanks being barred with black. The tail is deep blackish brown with 

 a broad buff tip, the bill is black, and the legs blackish brown. In size the Leipoa is 

 about equal to a very small turkey. 



