AUSTRALIAN CRESTED PIGEON. ve 
sterile hollow on the earth’s surface), never ascend- 
ing to higher land, where there are extensive 
marshes covered with Polygonium geranium. In 
the river valleys, on the flats of which the same 
bramble grows, Ocyphaps lophotes is sure to be 
found, but there is no part of the interior over 
which I have travelled where it is not, and it is 
very evident that its range is right across the con- 
tinent from north to south.” 
Campbell tells us how fond the Cresied pigeon 
is of water—that it flies into it, and drinks like a 
horse, sucking the water in, and stays for a little 
time by the water-pool after it has finished drinkk- 
ing. He also méntions the whistling sound of its 
wings when in flight, and how it jerks up its tail 
on alighting on a bough. It is few of us who have 
had the pleasure of watching a captive Crested 
dove enjoy its liberty—-having escaped from an 
aviary—with the happy ending to the owner of 
recovering it in a few hours. A writer 
who had this experience was much 
struck by the bird’s flight, which was 
almost straight up into the air like a 
rocket, ‘clapping his wings against his 
body all the time as he ascended, then 
he held up his wings and descended 
rapidly at a very acute angle till he 
reached about the same level from 
which he started, and then he flew away 
and alighted on the top of a larch 
tree about a hundred yards off, and up 
went his tail as he poised himself, which 
he did without difficulty on the thin 
twigs.’ As the hen was being used as 
decoy in a trap cage this was probably 
the cock’s love dance, for he went 
through the performance again and 
again. His crest when flying low was 
always carried on his neck, and the 
rapidity of his flight very great; he did 
not even check it when alighting, but 
just threw up his tail to arrest his 
momentum. The flesh of the Crested 
pigeon is said to be neither very tender 
nor yet well flavoured. The nest is very fragile, 
and is built in low shrubs in exposed situations; 
two eggs are laid. 
LIFE IN CAPTIVITY. 
Most people who have kept any foreign pigeons 
have kept the Crested or Marsh pigeon, for it is a 
general favourite, being very hardy and easy to 
breed, so many as five broods being bred in one 
season. It is, however, a bad-tempered bird 
towards others of its tribe whilst nesting, and one 
pair I had were most disturbing—they had a mania 
for sitting, and sitting well, on other doves’ eggs, 
each bird taking a separate nest; they even hatched 
one Necklace dove’s egg. 
At last I gave them a small aviary to themselves, 
and here they brought up several young ones. The 
young birds are very pretty, soft grey in colour, 
with tiny crests even before they leave the nest, 
but the cyes are dark, and the skin round them 
dark also, though at two months old it is red, as 
in the adult bird. The parents are very devoted, 
and one of my young ones was still being fed at 
the age of five weeks old. The late Mr. Cresswell 
had one young Crested dove that was so precocious 
that at 13 days old it flew from its nest to a high 
perch. 
I noticed that when my cockbird was angry he 
would always lower his crest flat before he made 
an attack on another bird, and the ordinary coo 
(which is more like a bark and sounds like ‘“‘whuff, 
whuff”’) was changed for a snapping noise with its 
beak, rather like the sound made by an owl. Even 
in so small a space as an aviary the Crested dove 
AUSTRALIAN CRESTED PIGEON. 
Photo by Mr. D. Seth-Smith. 
From The Avicultural Magazine. 
still retains its habit of jerking up its tail when 
alighting, and very graceful it looks when doing 
it, for it is a most shapely bird, and its upright 
crest of fine hair-like feathers (which look as if 
they had been wetted and then brushed to a point) 
give it a very distinguished appearance. When 
cooing to the hens my cock birds used to spread 
their tails like fans, arch the wings above the back, 
and so display all the beautiful metallic colours to 
the best advantage, bobbing up and down mean- 
while as if they were on springs. In one instance 
only have I heard of a cock showing off by trailing 
and spreading his wing. 
Once I had a hen Crested dove that in some un- 
