PIGEONS. 



245 



The genus Leucosarcia, also confined to Australia, contains but one species, a large 

 handsome bird known as L. picata, remarkable for the delicacy of its flesh. It 

 inhabits the brush which stretches along the line of coast of New South Wales, or 

 that covering the hillsides of the interior. It passes its time on the ground, rising 

 with the sudden burst and noise of a Gallinaceous bird, but does not remain long upon 

 the wing. It has a very pleasing plumage of slate-gray and white. The tail has 

 fourteen feathers. 



Henicophaps, with its single species, H. albifrons, is a genus restricted to the 

 Papuan Islands, but of a more extended distribution than some which are found hi 

 that archipelago. It is a rather dull-looking bird, with a strong plover-like bill ; the 



FIG. 118. Ocyphaps lophotes, crested-pigeon, and Phaps chalcoptera, bronze-wing pigeon. 



plumage fuscous rufous black, tinged with glossy green, the wing-coverts glossed 

 with a golden-copper hue, forehead white. Very little is known of the bird. It was 

 first procured by Wallace in Waigu, where it feeds from low trees and shrubs, but 

 does not appear to be altogether terrestrial. 



Chalcophaps is a genus of brush pigeons, containing about a dozen species, which 

 feed upon the ground on seeds and berries. It is pretty widely dispersed, the species 

 being natives of India, Ceylon, Java, Borneo, Australia, Papuan and Philippine Islands, 

 and Formosa. They have a rich, glossy, mostly green plumage, and a very swift flight. 

 The best-known species is probably the C. indica, found all over India where forests 

 exist, and all countries to the east of the Bay of Bengal, also throughout the islands 



