208 HAVE BRED AT KNOWSLEY. [CHAP. vi. 



great power of flight is also a highly necessary qualifica- 

 tion to enable it to traverse the great distances it is 

 probably often necessitated to do in search of water. 



" On dissecting the specimens obtained, I found their 

 crops half-filled with small hard seeds, which they pro- 

 cured from the open plains, but of what kinds I was 

 unable to determine."* 



The reader is now particularly requested to compare 

 in his imagination the burning wastes of which the bird 

 is native, with an account of its doings, of its own free 

 choice, in England. For the details I am indebted to 

 the kindness of the Earl of Derby, and it will be most 

 respectful to his Lordship to give them in his own 

 words. 



Sept. 20, 1850. "I have already told you of the 

 success we have had in breeding the Australian Doves, 

 and that a pair of the Harlequin Bronze- wing had made 

 a nest on the ground in the open Pheasantry, merely under 

 the wired part, and close to the low front wall ; in con- 

 sequence of which Thompson took the precaution, by 

 way of some protection against rain or other storms, to 

 place a board as a sort of pent-house, or lean-to, from 

 the wall over her, while she was yet sitting. Yet this 

 never disturbed her ; but since her couple of young 

 have been hatched, she occasionally amuses herself by 

 changing their place for some reason or other, which 

 she manages by inducing them to flutter along the 

 ground after her to the distance of a foot or two, by 

 which means she has of course now removed them from 

 under the shelter of the board, and into the open air, 

 and in consequence I fear they may have sustained 



* Birds of Australia. 



