114 



Total length, 6 inches ; bill, | ; wing, 3 ; tail, 3^ ; tarsi, ^. 

 Hab. Van Diemen's Land and the southern coast of Australia. 



A new and highly interesting Pigeon as 



CoLUMBA (Peristera) histrionica. Col. capita nigra ; f route, 

 spatio circum phmas auriculares necnon notd semilunari apud 

 gulam albis ; corpora superne e cinnamomino fusco ; subtils cceru- 

 lescenti-cinereo. 



Forehead, a stripe from behind the eye forming a circle round the 

 ear coverts, and a crescent-shaped mark across the throat, snow- 

 white ; the remainder of the head, throat and ear coverts, jet black; 

 all the upper surface, wing coverts, flanks, and two centre tail feathers, 

 deep cinnamon brown ; edge of the shoulder dull white ; spurious 

 wing bluish grey, slightly margined with white ; primaries brown- 

 ish grey, margined on their outer webs with rufous, at the base of 

 the inner web largely marked with the same, forming a conspicuous 

 patch on the under surface of the wing ; and with an oval spot of 

 white at the tip of each feather ; secondaries by a beautiful band of 

 deep crimson-bronze on the outer webs near the tip ; lateral tail 

 feathers bluish gray at the base, passing into black toward the ex- 

 tremity, which is white ; breast and centre of the abdomen bluish 

 gray; under tail coverts light buff; nostrils and bill black; irides 

 dark brown ; frontal scales of the legs and feet lilac-red ; hind part 

 of the legs flesh-red. 



Total length, IO5 inches ; bill, 1 ; wing, 8 ; tail, 3^; tarsus, 1. 



Hah. Plains of interior of Australia. 



And a Rasorial bird of an entirely new form, about half the size 

 of a Quail, and which, were it not for the presence of a hind toe, 

 might be taken for a diminutive bustard. 



Mr. Gould proposed to make it the type of a new genus, with the 

 following appellation and characters : 



Genus Pedionomus. 



Gen. Char. — Rostrum tarn longum qilam caput, apicem versus com- 

 pressum, fere rectum, naribus valde elongatis, in fovea basali positis. 

 Ala vslAh concavse, remigibus primo, secundo, et tertio, inter se ffere 

 aequalibus, remigibus tertiariis perlongis, et primaries transeuntibus. 

 Tibi<e super suffraginem nudae. Tarsi mediocriter elongati, scutis 

 undiqufe tecti, his, reticulis minutis, sejunctis. Digiti quatuor ; ho- 

 rum posticus, debilis, et apud partem intemam tarsi, sursiim positus. 



Pedionomus torquatus. Pad. vertica et pectora rufis, singulis 

 plumis propa apicem lunuld nigrd notatis ; collari lato, albo, 

 crebri maculis nigris guttata. 

 Crown of the head brown speckled with black, sides of the head 

 and the neck light buff^ speckled with black ; neck surrounded by a 

 broad band of white thickly spotted with black ; all the upper sur- 

 face reddish brown, each feather having several narrow, transverse, 

 crescent- shaped marks in the centre and margined with buff; tail 

 buff, crossed by numerous narrow brown bars ; centre of the breast 



