CHAP. VI.] 



GUIDES TO WATEE. 195 



whence, on the approach of evening, they wing their 

 way, with arrow-like swiftness, to the water-holes many 

 miles distant, for a supply of that element so essential 

 to life ; besides which, they are nearly all strictly 

 migratory birds. Still, any attempt to introduce them 

 would be most praiseworthy ; but I fear that their habits 

 would not become sufficiently modified to render it 

 successful." 



The same high authority, in his valuable " Introduc- 

 tion to the Birds of Australia," (which he has printed 

 for the use of his scientific friends, and which is parti- 

 cularly acceptable to those who have no opportunity of 

 access to the costly folio edition,) speaking of the Bronze- 

 wings generally, states that the members of this genus 

 " not only form an excellent viand for the settlers, but 

 one of the greatest boons bestowed upon the explorer, 

 since they not only furnish him with a supply of nutri- 

 tious food, but direct him by their straight and arrow- 

 like evening flight, to the situations where he may find 

 water that element without which man cannot exist." 

 He has styled the genus Phaps (Oa^, palumbus, avis), 

 adopting the designation first given by Mr. Selby, 

 and mentions three species, chalcoptera, elegans, and 

 histrionica. 



Africa has her Honey-guide, and Australia may boast 

 her Water-witch. The Bronze-wing is the friendly 



of Jasmine ; and seems also to pick occasionally the seed vessel of a 

 Ruellia, which is very frequent on all the flats of Comet Creek." 

 p. 88. " Shot some Bronze-winged Pigeons ; in the crop of one I 

 found a small Helix with a long spire a form I do not remember 

 ever having seen before in the colony." p. 99. " Large flocks of 

 Peristera (Phaps) histrionica, the Harlequin Pigeon, were lying on 

 the patches of burnt grass on the plains ; they feed on the brown 

 seeds of a grass which annoyed us very much by getting into our 

 stockings, trowsers, and blankets." p. 297. 



