58 MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS. 
by the leg knitting together splendidly, so that 
beyond a slight limp the injury was not permanent. 
After the hen died the cock pined very much, and 
was overjoyed when I presented him with a new 
wife. I was never fortunate enough to rear any 
young ones, and found the cockbird so quarrel- 
some that finally I was glad to give both birds 
away. 
The male bird had a most peculiar coo that after 
a time became rather irritating, and earned for 
him the nickname of the ‘‘Popple-wock’’ dove. 
The late Mr. Cresswell tells us how he had a cock 
Bar-shouldered dove seven years, and the bird 
would ‘‘cuckoo”’ to order. It even deceived the 
real Cuckoos who would fly close to the aviary, 
and once being heard by some workmen half-a- 
mile away (who were working on a much lower 
Jevel than the aviary), the report got spread, and 
even into a London paper, that the cuckoo had 
been heard in Herefordshire at an extraordinary 
time of the year. After the cock’s death the hen 
started to ‘‘cuckoo,’’ though she had rarely if ever 
done so before, and would answer the cuckoo’s 
call. 
The Bar-shouldered is a very handsome dove, 
but its bad temper and trying coo, which Dr. 
Butler not untruly describes as ‘‘an impudent con- 
ceited sound,’’ considerably lessens its attractive- 
ness as an aviary pet. It was first kept in the 
Zoo in May, 1868, and bred there in July of the 
same year, and many times since. The value per 
pair is hard to say, but it is a dove not often offered 
for sale, nor is there apparently much demand 
for it. 
Mr. Cresswell’s cock made nests and sat on 
them, but whilst his first hen was alive no eggs 
were laid, and the cock even went so far as to 
destroy other birds’ eggs and nests and hinder 
them from breeding. A new hen was got to put 
with the cock into another aviary, and here within 
ten days the hen had laid and was sitting well. In 
his notes a year later Mr. Cresswell tells us how 
the Bar-shouldered doves had failed to make their 
nesting a success. Every year they hatched about 
five pairs and always deserted the young birds 
when they were about a fortnight old. The only 
one that was reared was brought up under some 
Barbary doves as foster parents. 
Dr. Butler gives a most interesting description 
of the courting postures of the cock Bar-shouldered 
dove. He says when the ordinary bowing and 
chasing seemed to leave the female indifferent, the 
cock “suddenly turned his back on her, raised his 
head to its highest elevation, spread his tail fan- 
wise so that it swept the earth, and ran forward 
two or three steps, with a short sharp guttural 
sound, then looked over his shoulder and repeated 
the action perhaps a dozen times. His rage when 
she ignored all his efforts was unbounded, and he 
then commenced a system of tyrannous persecu- 
tion, varied with occasional fondlings, which bade 
fair to reduce her to a scarecrow.”’ 
The most general way for the Geopelia species. 
to show off to the hen is to bow almost to the 
ground, at the same time drooping the wings, and 
raising and spreading the tail like a fan. I once 
saw my own cock go through a most curious per- 
formance: he put down his head till his beak 
touched the wooden shelf he was standing on, and 
then rubbed the beak about, making a noise at the 
same time like a toy wind-up mouse. He was a 
fine bird, but a great bully, keeping the Auritas. 
and Madagascars (who are also rather tyrants), 
and needless to say his own wife, in order. I was 
really glad when a friend kindly took him, in 
spite of his beauty. 
THE PEACEFUL DOVE. 
(Geopelia tranquilla). 
Habital.—Australia. 
Length.—83 inches. Shape, slender and elegant. 
Colouring.—Adult male—Forehead, cheeks, and 
throat grey, the occiput, back and wings ashy 
brown; the breast, sides, and back of neck grey; 
abdomen and flanks vinous. As in the Zebra dove, 
this bird is covered with tiny black lines, giving it 
a striped or barred appearance. These bars extend 
right across the upper breast, whereas in the Zebra 
they extend only across the sides of it. The bill 
and orbits are bright greyish blue, the iris of the 
eye bright ash grey, and the legs greenish grey 
in front, redder behind. 
WILD LIFE. 
Gould says this dove is ‘‘chiefly observed on the 
ground, feeding on the seeds of various plants 
under the shelter of  thinly-timbered forests 
bordering plains.’? Campbell tells us that the 
Peaceful doves fed close to the camp, and that the 
nest is composed of twigs, rootlets, and fine dry 
grass. 
Captain Sturt calls this dove the ‘Ventrilo- 
quist.’? He says ‘it frequents the banks of the 
Darling and the Murray, but is not so common as 
Geopelia cuneata (the Diamond Dove). i first 
found it on the marshes of the Macquarie, but 
could not see it. The fact is that it has the power 
of throwing its voice to a distance, and I mistook 
it for some time for the note of a large bird on the 
plains, and sent a man with a gun more than once 
to shoot it, but without success. At last, as Mr. 
Hume and IJ were one day sitting under a tree on 
the Bogan Creek, between the Macquarie and the 
Darling, we heard a note, and I sent my man 
