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Hvtcultural flfoaoasine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



New Series— \IO\-. V. — No. 2. — All rights reserved. DECEMBER, 1906.


NOTES ON THE PLUMED DOVES.


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


Three species, or perhaps two of them should be ranked


only as local races or sub-species, are known of the genus


Lophophaps. They are exceedingly beautiful little Doves, entirely


terrestrial in their habits, running over the ground as rapidly as


Quails, and springing into the air with the same rapid buzzing


flight.


The Plumed Doves inhabit the heated and arid plains of


Australia, where their plumage harmonizes with the reddish


sandy soil, and they love to bask in the tropical heat of the sun's


rays. They never perch on trees although they delight to sit on


rocks.


The three species or races which comprise this genus


are as follows :


i. Lophophaps plumifera, Gould's type of the genus, differing


from L. leucogaster, the bird now figured, by its darker


colour and by the absence of the white pectoral band so


conspicuous in L. leucogaster. Habitat: North West


Australia.


2. L. fer?'ugi?iea (Gould), differing from L. plumifera only in


the cinnamon colour of its plumage being of a much

deeper hue. It inhabits Western Australia and perhaps

is merely a local race of L plumifera.


3. L. leucogaster (Gould) figured in the accompanying plate,


inhabits " the whole of Central Australia, the Gulf

District and the interior of Northern and North -Western

Australia." (North).

It is of the last only of these three forms which, accord-



