THE



211



Hvicultural fllbaga3me,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



New Series .—VOL. It. — No. 7 .—All rights reserved. MAY, 1904.



NOTES ON THE HABITS IN CAPTIVITY OF THE

BRUSH BRONZEWING PIGEON.


Phaps elegans.


By D. Seth-Smith, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


There has always been to the present writer a certain

amount of fascination in the Pigeons and Doves of Australia;

there is something far more attractive about the Australian

birds in general than about those of other parts of the

world, with of course a few notable exceptions : the

Parrakeets, for instance, of the Antipodes are much more attrac¬

tive in every way than those of Asia or America. Amongst the

Doves of Australia there are many that we rarely if ever see

alive in this country, though others, such as the Diamond, the

Common and Crested Bronzewings, and the Peaceful Doves

come over fairly regularly. Often have I wished, when studying

the magnificent works of Gould, that I should some day have an

opportunity of keeping such birds as the Harlequin Bronze¬

wing ( Histriophaps histiionica), the Partridge Bronzewing (Geo-

phaps scripta), or the Brush Bronzewing; hence it was with

much pleasure that I beheld, on the i ith of January last, three

healthy specimens of the last-mentioned species—two males and

a female—in the shop of a London bird-dealer, and, after the

usual bargaining, secured them as my own.


My experience of the Common Bronzewing Pigeon ( Phaps

chalcoptera ) is that some specimens are extremely tame, whereas

others are quite the reverse. Perhaps it is the same with



