44 On Nesting of the Partridge Bronze-wing Pigeon.


is now complete, the feathers round base of bill are fully de¬

veloped. The colours of the soft parts are : iris , dark brown ; skin

round eye bluish white, slightly tinged with green behind and

•carmine in front of eye ; bill, dark brown, dusted with greyish at

base and on cere; feet, scales purplish grey, soles, back of tarsus

and joints of scales ashy ; claws, dark brown. Its actions remind

me very much of a pea-hen when walking slowly, on turning,

the tail is often bent to one side, just as I have seen pea fowls do,

.and when running the head is held very high, the neck being

stretched out to its full length, while the wings are drooped and

■the tail is slightly raised, being kept tightly folded.


On the 12th and 14th July two eggs were laid in different

parts of the aviary, the birds made no attempt to sit. O11 the

15th I put the eggs under some other doves: on the 20th one

was cracked and the other deserted. I put the sound egg under

-another pair; it hatched 011 August 1st. Incubation again seven¬

teen days, counting from July 15th when the egg was set. This

young one was never properly fed, as I had not got any birds

which were due to hatch about this date, and on August 4th I

found it on the ground, dead some hours. It is this bird that I

sent to the Museum. On July 21st and 23rd the hen again laid

in her old nest, and on August 8th two young were hatched,

being the sixteenth day of incubation.


I am afraid the above notes read like a collection of

statistics, but I thought it best to put them down in full, so that

there can be no excuse in the future for not knowing what the

3 7 oung of Geophaps are like. I have no reason to doubt that the

young birds were quite normal in every way, they seemed per¬

fectly strong and healthy from the very first, and the conditions

under which the birds are kept, in a large aviary, with grass,

-growing shrubs, with stones and thick branches to perch on, are

sufficiently like their natural habitat not to materially interfere

with the habits of the species. We have traced the young from

the egg until it is virtually full grown.


I11 summing up I do not think that anything has been

noticed to merit this group being separated from the more typical

Pigeons. The mode of incubation thoroughly accords with that

'Of other members of the group Columbce, the young when hatched



