on the Green- Winged Pigeo?is of the Gemis Chalcophaps. 279


the wooded for tlie open country, unless it is to dash from one

clump of trees to another. They are solitary in their habits and

not often to be seen, being practically invisible amongst the

green leaves of the trees. Their note is a very soft and plaintive

coo which is practically identical in both the Australian and

Indian species.


In captivity these birds do best in a large aviary in which

are thick-growing trees and an abundance of brushwood fixed up

beneath shelters. They almost invariably seek a nesting site in

some fairly dark place, either on the top of a clump of brush¬

wood underneath the roof of the covered portion of the aviary,

or in the middle of a tree with plenty of leafy branches above

them.


During the summers of 1904 and 1905 the Indian species

bred freely in my aviary, usually selecting a fairly dark corner

in the covered portion. The nest is the usual doves platform of

sticks and grass-stems. The eggs are cream-coloured, not white,

and the young, when first hatched are almost black, scantily

covered with whitish down. On leaving the nest the young birds

are dark brown, the feathers of the head, breast and wing coverts

being broadly margined with chestnut. Some of the lesser wing-

coverts are green, and there is a distinct greenish tinge to some

of the secondaries and their coverts. There are two conspicuous

white bars on the rump.


The Australasian species is far less often imported than

the Indian form, and I believe, has never been bred in captivity

until this year. Early last January I obtained a pair of C.

chrysochlora from New Caledonia, and later a male of the same

species from Queensland. The latter specimen is a remarkably

fine bird, somewhat larger than the first male, which he soon

challenged for the possession of the hen, which was also a very

fine bird. I had to remove the New Caledonian cock or he

would have soon been bullied to death by his stronger rival, and

the remaining pair soon set about selecting a nesting site. They

are both shy birds and generally keep out of sight when any¬

one is near, and I had no idea that a nest had been built until

one day in May, when I entered the covered aviary, the cock

dashed from a dark corner where, high up, a bundle of sticks



