THE BRONZE-WING PIGEON. 



69 



and drawn into the arbour, the remaining' doves 

 being too absorbed to notice the disappearance of 

 their comrades." On the other hand, in Upper 

 .^ssani this bird is described as beingf shv. 



LIFE IX C.WrlVITY. 



I have never bred this beautiful dove myself, 

 though I have kept numerous specimens since 

 1898. One of these earlier birds escaped, but not 

 being able to fly well he was soon recovered. The 

 hen tormented and chased the cock ; she was not 

 a good feathered specimen, and always looked 

 hump-backed. I kept the doves in the heated 

 aviary that winter, and turned them out in April 

 of the next year. I did not find them very interest- 

 ing; they kept much in the shelter, and in the 

 summer came out to roost at night. 



In January, 190 1, one of my birds nearly died 

 of cold. I found it in a state of collapse, trembling 

 and the feet clenched. I brought to the heated 

 aviary and placed it on the hot pipes, and gave it 

 a little brand}' and water. The moans of the poor 

 bird were pitiful to hear, but after a time it came 

 round, and though it ate nothing all day, by the 

 next morning it seemed all .right. I still have one 

 of my original birds ; he must be b}' now at least 

 ten years old, and is still in perfect plumage and 

 as 3'oung looking as ever. Last year I got a good 

 breeding bird as a mate for him, but she has not 

 found much favour with my old cock; he seems 

 only interested in himself, and they have made no 

 attempt to nest. 



The Indian Greenwing has been bred several 

 times in private aviaries. Dr. Russ bred it freely, 

 the nest being formed in a wire cage hanging high 

 up. Mr. Seth-Smith bred this dove in 1904. The 

 hen was a ver}' old bird that had nested and laid 

 eggs whilst in her former owner's possession. A 

 new mate being obtained for her, they started 

 nesting, though not till the spring after the cock's 

 arrival. Several young birds were reared. The 

 young were very small on leaving the nest; their 

 heads were almost bare, but the wings were fully 

 feathered and they could fly well. In colour the 

 young birds were a "very dark brown, almost 

 black, broadly tipped with reddish brown"; even 

 then a few green feathers were visible on the back 

 and wings. The change in the plumage was 

 gradual, and in the first adult feathering the colour 

 was not so bright as in the old birds. The two 

 eggs were cream colour, not white. 



Mr. Thomasset tells us how his cock (the 

 original mate of the bird referred to above) would 

 coo and caress the hen. He would depress the 

 head and breast, and arching his wings above his 



back, show off all his beautiful green plumage 

 while displaying to her. 



Dr. Greene gives a long account both of his own 

 Greenwings and also the nesting of a pair in 

 Wales. These latter birds stood the severe winter 

 of i88i out of doors, when the thermometer went 

 down to 3 degrees below zero. The nest was built 

 in the shelter (in a small dead spruce), and was 

 composed of twigs, and the voung birds were 

 hatched out three times during the season. Owing 

 to numerous accidents, however, they were not all 

 reared. In this aviary was a very mixed collec- 

 tion of birds, from Crested doves and parrakeets 

 down to Zebra finches ; the aviary was only 24 feet 

 long by 14 feet wide, with a sleeping-house 12 feet 

 by 6 feet, and this is not a large space for so many 

 birds of different kinds, to have any hope of 

 successful nesting. 



Dr. Greene tells us that the young Greenwings 

 resemble the hen until after the first moult, but 

 are wanting the bronze reflections of the adult bird. 

 The young were hatched in about 17 days, and in 

 about three weeks left the nest, but were fed by the 

 parents for some tiine longer. There were two 

 broods during the season, but so many as four 

 have been known. Both Dr. Greene and another 

 writer give the Greenwing a character for bad 

 temper. In the one case the hen drew blood from 

 the male with her bill, plucking out many feathers 

 every time he tried to caress her ; in the other 

 instance a pair had lived together for years and 

 reared numerous 3'oung ones, when suddenly the 

 cock turned upon the hen and ended in murdering 

 her. 



I cannot say I have found my own birds fierce 

 either with each other or with other doves, my 

 first hen being the exception, but she did nothing 

 serious. At the time Dr. Greene wrote Indian 

 Greenwings were 30- to 40/- a pair. I paid 18/6 

 for my four birds in 1900 ; the average price now is 

 about 12/6 a pair. These doves were liept at the 



THE BRONZE-WING PIGEON. 



(Phaps chalcoptera). 



Habitat. — Australia and Tasmania. 



Length. — Over 15 inches. Shape, long and 

 heavy, with short thick legs. 



Colouring. — Adult male — The forehead rich bufT, 

 a white line runs across each side of the face under 

 the eye, the breast is a lovely shade of soft purple 

 shading into grey on the abdomen, the sides of the 

 necli (merging into the breast) deep slate grey. 

 The wings are very beautiful, being adorned with 

 four rows of gorgeous metallic feathers, the first 



