74 



MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS. 



the world were something' very new and strange, 

 as indeed it must first seem to them when they 

 leave the nest and come amongst other birds. I 

 should consider the Brush Bronze-wing quite a 

 hardy dove. 



PARTRIDGE BRONZE-WING PIGEON. 



{Geophaps scripta). 



Habitat. — North-Western and Eastern Aus- 

 tralia, from Rockingham Bay through the interior 

 to Victoria. 



Length. — About 12 inches. Shape, rounded, but 

 rather long in body. 



Colouring. — Adult male — pale brown above the 

 upper part of the wings with paler tips to the 

 feathers ; on the lower half of the 

 wings rich purplish-green metallic 

 patches. The forehead is ashy, the 

 face marked with black and white 

 stripes, one stripe going beneath the 

 eye, another behind it. The eye is 

 black, surrounded with naked blue 

 skin, and the corner of the eye reddish. 

 The black on the face forms a 

 crescent across the lower part of the 

 throat, the flanki are white, the 

 abdomen grey, the feet purplish 

 crimson. The hen is like the cock, 

 but slighter and rather smaller. The 

 legs of this dove seem rather short in 

 proportion to its size, but more fitted 

 to a bird that keeps so much on the 

 ground. 



WILD LIFE. 



The flesh of the Partridge Bronze- 

 wing, or as it is called in Australia, 

 the Squatter pigeon, is considered 

 delicious eating and equal in flavour 

 to the Wonga-Wonga. Campbell 

 speaks of this Bronze-wing going 

 about in little flocks of five or six 

 birds, and that it will run and squat down to hide 

 itself when it suspects danger. Its nest, contrary 

 to others of the pigeon tribe, is made in a hollow 

 in the ground and lined with soft dead grass ; the 

 eggs are white and two in number. 



The Partridge pigeon breeds at almost any time 

 of the year, but usually from September or October 

 onwards. The food consists of grass and seeds, 

 and at certain seasons berries and insects. This 

 bird can run with great speed, and when it 

 "squats" will almost allow itself to be trodden on. 

 If obliged to rise it flies off with a great noise and 

 settles again, either on the plain or the out- 

 stretched branch of a tree, along which it squats 

 like a night jar, in the same line as the limb. 



LIFE IN CAPTIVITY. 



This gentle little pigeon has not long been well 

 known to English aviculturalists. One bird was 

 presented to the Zoo in 1883, and in 1891 some 

 eggs were laid (several other birds having been 

 acquired since the original one) and hatched by a 

 Barbary Turtle-dove ; the young birds, however, 

 only lived 14 days. 



To Mr. T. H. Newman, our greatest living 

 authority on doves and pigeons, belongs the 

 honour of raising the Partridge Bronze-wing to 

 maturity (for the first time in England) in his own 

 aviaries. Mr. Newman gives us a most full and 

 interesting account of the nesting, from which I 

 have only space to recount a few facts. 



Partridge Bronze-wixg Pigeon. 



Photo by Mr. D. Seth-Smith. 

 From The AvicuUural Magazine. 



His birds spent nearly all their time on the 

 ground, and would roost in a little group, their 

 heads pointing in dift'erent directions, their tails 

 coming clo.se together in the centre. The old birds 

 were greatly attached to each other, were seldom 

 far apart, and kept up a running conversation in 

 a low "crooning" tone. 



These pigeons have a way of rising on tip-toe 

 and giving their wings a vigorous flap. The cock 

 used to go through some most amusing little ways 

 when he met the hen : he would raise his head and 

 back feathers, elevate his tall and wings, and 

 thrice repeat a hurried coo. 



I had a pair of these Bronze-wings myself, and 

 loved to watch the cock going through his 



