2 6o A USTRALIAN AND TASMANIAN ANIMALS 



and make a great splashing with their wings, which has the effect of driving their 

 common enemy away. 



In this connection reference may he made to a lake in the northern territory 

 of Australia, which, according to another well-known local naturalist, Mr. le 

 Souef, appears to be a veritable death-trap for swans, pelicans, and other water- 

 birds. Lake Buchanan, 80 miles distant from Pentland, is the piece of water 

 referred to, this lake becoming filled to the brim during the rainy season, when 

 it is the resort of thousands of aquatic birds for breeding purposes, including 

 numbers of black swans and pelicans. It is, however, only in exceptional seasons 

 that any of the two latter species ever get away alive, for with the advance of summer 

 the lake gradually dries up, and, in the absence of any outlet, becomes intensely 

 salt. In consequence of this, all the cygnets and young pelicans, together with 

 hosts of fishes which have entered the lake from its influent creek during 

 the wet season, perish miserably, and form a mass of decaying animal matter 

 on its shores. Neither do most of the parent birds make their escape, as the 

 majority remain to tend their perishing young, with the result that they also 

 gradually become weak and ill from the effects of the salt water and lack 

 of food, till they are too feeble to fly away, even if they had the will. 

 Occurrences of a similar nature in past epochs may account for the enormous 

 number of fish-skeletons and other remains of vertebrates found in many 

 geological formations. 



Among the numerous Australian representatives of the pigeon 

 Pijreons. 



tribe (Columbidce), mention may first be made of the beautiful 



crested bronze-winged dove (Ocyphaps lophotes), readily recognised by the 



pointed crest on its head. The common bronze-winged dove {Phaps chalcoptera), 



from which probably the preceding species has been generically separated without 



sufficient reason, is noteworthy on account of the enormous distances it is capable 



of flying without a rest. Both these genera, as well as Histriophaps, Petrophassa, 



Geophaps, and Lophophaps, are exclusively Australian. The same is the case in 



another group of the family with Leucosarcia, as represented by the well-known 



wonga-wonga dove (L. picata), of the eastern side of the continent, a species 



which it has been suggested might prove suitable for domestication. Among the 



group of fruit-pigeons are several brilliantly coloured birds, specially designated 



painted pigeons, the geographical distribution of which embraces Australia and 



New Guinea together with some of the islands of the Malay Archipelago and 



Polynesia. A well-known member of this group is Swainson's painted pigeon 



(Ptilopws swainsoni), a yellowish green bird with a rose-coloured crown and 



lilac breast-band inhabiting New South Wales. 



Although game-birds are by no means strongly represented in 

 Game-Birds. . . . * 



Australia, they include a few very characteristic types. Among 



widely spread groups are the Australian quail (Coturnix pectoralis australis), 

 and the Australian swamp-quail (Syncecus australis), the latter belonging to a 

 genus with four species, of which the collective range extends from Australia and 

 New Guinea to the Lesser Sunda Islands. Far more interesting are the brush- 

 turkeys or megapodes (Megapodiidce), the distribution of which includes the 

 islands of the Malay and Polynesian Archipelagoes as well as Australia and 



