CHAP, vi.] VENTRILOQUIST PIGEONS. 205 



Another species, Geopelia tranquilla, one of the tiny 

 Ground-Doves, exercised its talents in puzzling Captain 

 Sturt during his exploring expeditions. He says, " This 

 bird frequents the banks of the Darling and the Murray, 

 but is not so common as the Geopelia cuneata. I first 

 heard it on the marshes of the Macquarie, but could 

 not see it. The fact is that it has the power of throw- 

 ing its voice to a distance, and I mistook it for some 

 time for the note of a large bird on the plains, and sent 

 a man more than once with a gun to shoot it, without 

 success. At last, as Mr. Hume and I were one day sitting 

 under a tree on the Bogan Creek, between the Mac- 

 quarie and the Darling, we heard the note, and I sent 

 my man Frazer to try once more if he could discover 

 what bird it was, when, on looking up into the tree 

 under which we were sitting, we saw one of these little 

 Doves, and ascertained from the movement of its 

 throat that the sound proceeded from it, although it 

 still fell on our ears as if it had been some large bird 

 upon the plain. I have therefore taken upon me to 

 call it ' Ventriloquist.' " 



THE HARLEQUIN BRONZE-WING, Phaps (Peristera of 

 Gould) histrionica, is an extremely beautiful bird, which 

 has lately bred in this country under most paradoxical 

 circumstances, if we were to estimate its degree of hardi- 

 ness from the climate of its native regions. It is an 

 instance, very similar to the Guinea-fowl, that practical 

 zoology is as much an empirical science as practical 

 chemistry ; and that we can form no safe a priori con- 

 clusions respecting the constitutional powers of any 

 untried living creature. Everything must be tested, 

 both singly and in combination, or by inter-breeding. 

 What zoology will still want, after her list of forms is 



