CHAP, vi.] CRESTED PIGEONS. 211 



markably tame as almost to admit of its being taken by 

 the hand ; and if forced to take wing, it merely flies to 

 the nearest trees, and there remains motionless among 

 the branches until it again descends to the ground. I 

 not unfrequently observed it close to the open doors of 

 the huts of the stock-keepers of the interior, who, from 

 its being so constantly before them, regard it with little 

 interest. 



" The nest is a frail but beautiful structure, formed of 

 the stalks of a few flowering grasses, crossed and inter- 

 woven after the manner of the other Pigeons. It utters 

 a rather singular note, which at times very much resem- 

 bles the distant crowing of a cock. The eggs are white, 

 and two in number, -f J of an inch long by T 7 ^ broad. 

 The sexes, although bearing a general resemblance to 

 each other, may be readily distinguished by the smaller 

 size of the female, by the browner hue of her wing- 

 feathers, and by the spotting of her upper surface not 

 being so numerous or so regular as in the male." 



There are two known crested Pigeons in Australia, 

 belonging to different genera : first, the GEOPHAPS 

 PLUMIFERA*, one of the very small doves, which we are 

 not aware has been brought alive to this country ; the 

 other, OCYPHAPS LOPHOTES, or CRESTED MARSH PIGEON, 

 has bred both at Knowsley and in the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens. Captain Sturt says, "The locality of this 

 beautiful Pigeon is always near water. It is a bird of 



* These pretty little Pigeons had been first observed by Brown in 

 the course of our yesterday's stage, who shot two of them, but they 

 were too much mutilated to make good specimens. We frequently 

 saw them afterwards, but never more than two, four, or six together, 

 running with great rapidity and with elevated crest over the ground, 

 and preferring the shady rocks along the sandy bed of the river." 

 Leichhardt's Expedition to Port Essington, p. 284. 



p 2 



