1875.] DR. O. FINSCH ON A NEW CROWNED PIGEON. 631 
stances of adaptation I have witnessed. I could not finish admiring, 
and thought that never had any thing so beautiful fallen in my way 
before; for even the sublime cloud-seeking instinct of the White 
Egret and the typical Herons seemed less admirable than this; and for 
some time I continued experimenting, pressing down the bird’s head 
and trying to bend him by main force into some other position ; but 
the strange rigidity remained unrelaxed, the fixed attitude unchanged. 
I also found, as I walked round him, that, as soon as 1 got to the 
opposite side and he could no longer twist himself on his perch, he 
whirled his body with great rapidity the other way, instantly pre- 
senting the same froat as before. 
Finally I plucked him forcibly from the rush and perched him on 
my hand, upon which he flew away ; but he flew only fifty or sixty 
yards off, and dropped into the dry grass. Here he again put in 
practice the same instinct so ably that I groped about for ten or 
twelve minutes before refinding him, and was astonished that a 
creature to all appearance so weak and frail should have strength 
and endurance suflicient to keep its body rigid and in one attitude 
for so long a time. 
10. On a new Species of Crown-Pigeon. 
By Orro Finscu, Ph.D., C.M.Z.S. 
[Received November 8, 1875.] 
(Plate LX VIII.) 
GouRA SCHEEPMAKERI, sp. nov. (Plate LXVIII.) 
Slate-blue ; wings and tail darker, the latter with a broad ashy 
apical margin ; crop and breast of a dark vinaceous purplish brown ; 
vent, lower flanks, and under taii-coverts of a lighter slate-blue than 
the upper parts ; wings and tail at the inner webs and from below 
slate-black ; the first six wing-coverts of the secondaries whitish ashy, 
narrowly tipped with blackish, the remaining coverts of the secon- 
daries slate-black like the first row of the upper wing-coverts; the 
light whitish ashy area on the middle of the wing therefore margined 
above by a broad black cross band ; remaining upper wing-coverts 
blackish, with dark slate-grey apical margins, the upper wing- 
coverts therefore darker than the back ; lower wing-coverts slate- 
black; lores and eye-region black, forming a conspicuous area 
which extends to the base of the crown-feathers; a very high and 
compressed semicircular crest of a pale ashy colour passing into 
whitish ashy under certain lights, at the base bluish ashy ; this crown, 
of which the longest feathers are about 5? inches long, is composed 
in the same manner as in G. coronata, by the hairy radii being dis- 
united and dispersed from the straight rhachis in an acute angle. 
Bill dark horn-colour, with a pale tip; feet blackish brown, toes 
lighter, nails blackish. 
Long. ale. caud. culm. rict. tars. dig. med. ung. 
ge Gio g" 16” PSU! Bi Oi 19'” 7 
