BRUSH BRONZE-WING PIGEON. a1 
fruit resembling a cherry; the kernels of this fruit 
are always found in their gizzard.” After the 
breeding season the Bronze-wings gather in flocks 
in the stubble-fields, where Gould says 30 or 40 
brace may be killed in one day. This pigeon is 
considered very good to eat, and is often shot as 
in England we should shoot gamebirds. The 
breeding season in .\ustralia is from August to 
December. 
Dr. Butler tells us that the nests are often built 
in the horizontal branch of an apple or gum tree, 
and that the Bronze-wing loves to live in the dis- 
tricts where the acacias trees are found (on the 
edge of the sandy flats), as it lives largely on their 
seeds; it often rears two or more broods in a 
season. 
Mr. Campbell notes that the Bronze-wing was 
first so called as far back as 1789; he mentions that 
this pigeon will fly within 50 yards of water, and 
always walks into it, mostly in the evening, but 
a few birds come in the morning. Having 
quenched its thirst, it will walk a few yards out of 
the water and then fly away. The Bronze-wing 
will feign a broken limb to lure you away from 
the young birds. The nestlings, we are told, suffer 
much from the crows, who are known to kill and 
cat them. 
Dr. Leichard gives the red fruit of Rhagodia and 
the blackberries of a species of Jasmine as the chief 
food of the Bronze-wing. 
LIFE IN CAPTIVITY. 
This lovely pigeon is deservedly a great favourite, 
for it is tame, hardy, and easy to keep, apart from 
its great beauty. It was bred at the Zoo so far 
back as 1868, and has been bred both there and in 
private aviaries many times since; indeed, it is 
almost the easiest to breed of all foreign pigeons 
in captivity. 
As a proof of their kindly nature, we are told of 
a tiny Passerine dove that formed a devoted friend- 
ship with a hen Bronze-wing. So hardy are these 
pigeons that they have been known to bathe when 
ice has been in the bath. 
My own pair of Bronze-wings I have had for 
years. I had at first two cocks and one hen, and 
gave the lady her choice of the two. She was not 
long in making up her mind, and seems never to 
have repented it, for they are a most devoted 
couple; but the strange part is that while the dis- 
carded bird was a magnificent cock, perfect in 
every way, the favoured one was blind on one side, 
the eye being completely gone. Perhaps it was a 
case of ‘‘pity being akin to love,’’ but certain it is 
the hen never wavered, and it used to be most 
amusing to watch these two birds perched facing 
each other, gazing into each other’s cyes as if they 
were entranced. 
Every year I have reared several young birds, 
but nearly all are cocks; it is very seldom I have 
any hens. 
I find my Bronze-wings, but especially the hen, 
very fond of wineberries, not quite ripe; the fruit is 
like a very small raspberry, but bright orange-red 
in colour, and the birds like them best before they 
get soft. Apart from its use as an article of food 
for my doves—other kinds liking the berries besides 
the Bronze-wings—the wineberry is a very pretty 
shrub and would make a splendid hedge. 
The young Bronze-wings are very pretty, being 
brownish with the feathers edged with a lighter 
shade; the white marks above and below the eyes 
are very distinct, and the little cock shows his buff 
forehead whilst still in the nest; the ‘‘bronze’’ does 
not appear till later. 
Mr. Seth-Smith tells us his young ones left the 
nest at two weeks old, and were fed till six weeks 
old or more by the parent birds. The eggs are 
large and white, and incubation lasts 17 to 19 days, 
the cock sitting during the day, the hen at night. 
The Bronze-wing is one of the kindest and most 
good-tempered of doves towards its own tribe. I 
have known my old hen not only brood her own 
young one, but also a little Solitary ground dove 
that was about the same age. The Bronze-wing’s 
coo has been likened by one writer to the lowing 
of cows in the distance, and by another to the 
groan of a wounded horse. It is a deep note and 
rather solemn. 
\ short time ago I was much interested in 
watching my birds making love to each other; the 
cock drew himself up, swept his tail in a fan, and 
burying his beak in his breast, struck an attitude; 
then, still in the same position, walked partly 
round the hen. Sie dabbed her beak several times 
on the shelf (both birds were standing on a broad 
wooden shelf that runs along the aviary front), and 
then came up to the cock and kissed him again 
and again on the neck and face; she then went 
a little way from him and spread out her nearest 
wing fanwise to him, showing all the metallic 
feathers. The affection of this pair of birds for 
each other is very great. I have had them now 
nearly seven years. 
The Bronze-wing has been known to eat earth- 
worms besides its seed diet; probably it would eat 
mealworms too. 
A flock of these pigeons are wild at Woburn 
Abbey; and ten were turned out at the Zoo as an 
experiment. The Tasmanian birds are said to be 
more brilliant than the Australian ones. The value 
of the Bronze-wing varies very much. I paid 48/- 
for my three birds. J have seen them offered for 
