96 Mr. G. M. Mathews on the 



the north side of the Island on the ridges bordering the 

 great swamp. There was good cover for them there in the 

 low bushes with plenty of vines growing over them. 



8. Geopelia placida placida. Northern Ground-Dove. 

 Geopdia placida Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1844, p. 55 : 



Port Essington. 



These birds are very numerous, and are seen in parties 

 of six or seven individuals. On the 10th of October a 

 nest containing two very small young ones was found. 

 This w^as built in a horizontal limb of a small Paper-bark 

 tree growing in a patch of scrub. It was composed of a 

 few twigs^ and fell to pieces when touched^ and was placed 

 about ten feet from the ground. 



It seems a stationary bird, as it is plentiful on Apsley 

 Straits, but rare on the north side of the Island ; only one 

 pair was seen there, on the 14th of January, 1912, and 

 this was in the centre of the great swamp, about a mile 

 from solid land. It is non-migratory. 



9. Chalcophaps chrysochlora longirostris. Long-billed 

 Green Pigeon. 



Chalcophaps longirostrift Gould, Birds Austr. vol. i. Introd. 

 1848, p. Ixix : Port Essington. 



Not plentiful. They seem to feed near the mangroves, 

 and when flushed sometimes fly into a tree about thirty 

 yards away, or if disturbed in a patch of open scrub, about 

 half a mile from the mangroves, they fly through it, keeping 

 near the ground, and alight either on the latter or in the 

 lower branches of the scrub. They left in December, but 

 on the 3rd of June, 1912, a pair was flushed and the 

 female had a soft-shelled egg in the oviduct. During this 

 month they w^ere common and were usually found on a 

 ridge. On the 7th of June two immature birds were shot, 

 and apparently they breed at any time of the year, as in 

 November half-grown ones were collected, and they were 

 nesting in June. 



